Flying Free
by Leia Emberblaze
Summary: "Well, where are your wings? Maybe you're not as powerful as you think you...AHH!"
1. The Levitation Spell

"What are you doing?" Glinda demanded. "That's what started this whole mess in the first place; that horrible levitation spell!"

Elphaba's fervent chanting didn't stop. The magic was ballooning inside her like a chamber of seething, molten lava. It seared at her fingertips, begging to be unleashed. Unfortunately fragments of the green woman's attention, and consequently her power, were being plucked away by Glinda's distracting exclamations.

The blonde, totally unaware of her effect on Elphaba's magic, continued to fuss. A pair of flawless, cream colored hands clenched in acute worry. At any moment Glinda expected painful, leathery appendages to sprout from her best friend's back.

"Stop!" the petite woman shouted, finally unable to stand it any longer.

Elphaba's mantra ceased, but only because her spell was completed. For a moment the two girls stood in anticipatory silence. When nothing happened Glinda slowly began to relax.

"Well, where are your wings?" she whispered. "Maybe you aren't as powerful as you think you-Ahh!"

The blonde's question was cut off by an ear splitting shriek of pain. She crumpled backwards onto the splintery wooden floor. Contortions tumbled through Glinda's body and she screamed again. It felt as though every bone in her back was painfully crunching itself into an unnatural position.

"Glinda!" Elphaba cried. She ran to her friend's side, hands jerking about with the need to do _something_. "What's wrong?"

"My _shoulders_!" Glinda shrieked in response. "It feels like…Ahh!" She arched against the floor in agony.

"Oh my Oz," the green woman murmured in bewildered panic. For all her knowledge Elphaba was totally clueless.

"Elphie make it stop!" the petite woman begged hoarsely. "Please make it stop." She rolled miserably, excruciatingly onto her stomach.

Just then a massive pair of golden, feathery wings ripped free from the skin of Glinda's back. A prolonged screech clawed free of the blonde's mouth before she succumbed to this new, overwhelming pain and went limp.

Elphaba, eyes wide and with tears pouring down her stricken face, remained frozen in horrified shock. How could she have done such an unspeakable thing to her best friend? How had the gift that had brought her to meet the Wizard, to what was meant to be the happiest day of her life, caused so much pain?

Two trembling, viridian hands gently touched the wings. They were a little longer than Glinda was tall and patterned with splotches of scarlet blood, like afterbirth on a baby animal. Before Elphaba's icy shock could melt away a pair of palace guards smashed down the attic door.

They saw the mysterious, supposedly threatening, green girl they were ordered to find standing over an innocent young woman with blood on her hands. The wings, they reasoned, were probably an evil enchantment that the witch had visited upon her victim. One man seized Elphaba's unresisting arms and slammed her against a wall.

Madame Morrible, in her opulent, lime green dress, swept in behind the armed men. "Bring that wretched creature to the Throne Room," she commanded imperiously.

"What about the other girl ma'am?"

"Carry her in too. This is a matter to be handled by the Wizard."

/

By the time Elphaba had been forced to kneel before the Wizard's throne her stunned silence was beginning to evaporate into guilt and anger. The guard not occupied with manhandling her dropped Glinda's prone body unceremoniously onto the polished, granite floor.

"Be careful with her," the green woman snarled. "She's not a sack of flour you oaf!" Heedless that such an action might be perceived as hostile to her overseers she slid towards Glinda. The blonde's face showed no evidence of pain; she was still peacefully oblivious.

"Leave us!" the Wizard's mechanical head commanded in a voice that sounded like copper pans smashing together. His guards marched out obediently. As soon as they were gone the real Wizard, the cheery old man who looked more equipped to be a barber than the ruler of Oz, appeared. His round, jolly features were creased with worry.

"What happened?" he demanded, apparently unconcerned that Elphaba would turn on him.

"It was an accident," she all but wailed. "I meant to cast the spell on me, not on Glinda. I didn't mean to hurt her." Madame Morrible chose that moment to arrive.

"Be careful your Wizardship," she warned. "You saw what the Witch did to her friend when she tried to stop her…"

"Madame I have no need of your services at present," the Wizard interrupted. Elphaba noted, with a fair amount of suspicious mystification, that he looked almost _protective_ of her and Glinda. Morrible, flustered and unsure whether arguing would get her anywhere, twittered about for a moment before finally exiting.

"What do you want with me?" the emerald witch demanded.

"I want to help you," Oz's unimpressive ruler replied gently. "Miss Upland seems to be in need of a medical once over and you look absolutely exhausted." Elphaba's eyes narrowed. What in Oz was he playing at?

The Wizard clapped twice and a personal servant, not Chistery this time but a young munchkin woman, emerged briskly. "Please escort Miss Thropp to my personal chambers and see to it that her friend is immediately taken to the medical wing."

"I'm not leaving Glinda," Elphaba deadpanned.

"Alright then, take them both to the medical wing," Oz's ruler exclaimed, totally undeterred. "If Miss Glinda doesn't require any immediate attention these girls should be allowed one of our finest guest suites in which to rest the night."

"Very good your Wizardship," the maidservant responded.


	2. Feathers

Glinda's back was sore. The dull, throbbing pain of her shoulder muscles was pulling the blonde from sleep's warm embrace. As consciousness returned Glinda realized that she was lying on a bed. Not only that, but something soft and oddly scratchy was pressing against her aching shoulders. Feathers? But why would there be so many feathers on a bed? Had someone shredded the pillows?

Curious Glinda pried her eyes open. She was immediately met with a worried, green face, bathed in the soft glow of twilight. "Glin!" Elphaba exclaimed softly. "You're awake."

"Uh huh," the blonde confirmed. She was surprised that her voice was scratchy, as though she'd been crying. The room in which Glinda found herself was furnished with opulent quoxwood furniture and decked out in relaxing shades of turquoise, jade, and lime. She shook her head, disoriented. "What happened? Where are we?" Elphaba flinched.

"We're in the Emerald City."

Everything came rushing back in a fearful wave. The last thing Glinda remembered was immeasurable pain exploding across her back. Panicked, the petite girl shot upright in bed. Two large, golden objects whooshed erect along with her. She could make out yellow feathers at the edges of her vision.

"Elphie what's going on?" Glinda whimpered. A pale hand reached tentatively towards her back. It encountered two bony expanses of muscle and down. Wings.

The blonde's eyes widened with horror just as Elphaba began to tear up. "I'm so sorry Glinda," she wept. "It was a total accident. I didn't mean to hurt you."

Glinda didn't react. Her features were nothing more than a stiff mask of absolute shock. Totally overwhelmed her body began to shake violently. Elphaba rushed forward to embrace the shivering witch. "I'm sorry," she murmured, rocking her friend. "I'm so sorry Glin. I promise I'll find a way to reverse this. I won't rest until everything is fixed." The green woman repeated these words like a mantra, as if enough repetitions could make them true.

Glinda knew otherwise. Even as Elphaba swore up and down that this wasn't permanent Madame Morrible's words drowned out every empty promise.

_You can't reverse a spell; spells are irreversible. _

Eventually, after several long, surreal moments, the blonde returned to reality. Her frozen limbs went limp in Elphaba's arms and she began to sob. It was in this messy position that the Wizard of Oz found his two guests upon entering their suite.

The emerald girl detected him first. Her piercing hazel eyes narrowed balefully into his. "I'm sorry to interrupt," he defended quietly. The unintimidating man held up a tray of luxurious, palace food. "I heard that Miss Upland had been given a clean bill of health and thought you girls might be hungry."

Elphaba looked down at Glinda's prone, sniffling form. Her wings, which had been cleaned and now matched the blonde's hair color exactly, drooped pitifully. Glinda seemed to understand that her protective friend was seeking confirmation, so she gave a weak nod. "I'm a little hungry."

With that prompt the Wizard set his offerings down on a nearby quoxwood table. "What would you like to drink?" he questioned brightly. "I brought tea, hot chocolate, water, juice…"

"Leave the food and go," Elphaba growled. The Wizard's face crumpled.

"I understand that you don't trust me," he responded. "Really I do. What you went through in that attic was my fault; I shouldn't have pressured you so in the throne room. Please understand that I just want to help." The girls gave no outwards sign that his words had made a difference, so Oz's ruler left them to their dinner.

By now Glinda had taken steps towards regaining her composure. She'd stopped crying for long enough that Elphaba thought it ok to prepare a mug of hot cocoa. The blonde took it gratefully. For several long, agonizing minutes they sat in silence.

"Can you ever forgive me?" Elphaba's voice quivered as she voiced the query that had been plaguing her for hours. Glinda took one look at her friend's terrified expression and managed a weak smile.

"I always wanted fairy wings when I was little. Sometimes I would grab the ends of a yellow towel, hang it over my shoulders, and pretend to be an angel."

"You didn't answer my question."

"It was an accident Elphie, and you're my best friend."

The green woman's shoulders slumped with profound relief. "Thank you." Glinda nodded feebly and slipped off the bed. She stretched one wing sideways to examine it. Directing an extra pair of appendages felt distinctively strange, but the magic seemed to have wired wing control into Glinda's brain.

"They're actually kinda pretty," the blonde observed. "Not like those grotesque, batish things on Chistery." Another pang of guilt rippled through Elphaba's chest. Until now she'd all but forgotten about the Monkey. "Do you think people will stare?"

"Not like they stare at me. They'll probably think you're an angel."

Glinda's eyes brightened considerably at this comment. "Really?"

"Boq will think he's died and gone to heaven." The blonde grinned for a moment, but then an unpleasant notion fouled her smile.

"Will we go back to Shiz?"

"I don't think the Wizard will let us. We know too much."

"He told us he wanted to help," Glinda pointed out optimistically.

"He also told Oz that he's an all powerful Wizard." Elphaba's voice was edged with razors. "I don't trust that man. There's probably a battalion of guards outside our room."

"So what will we do?"

There was no response. The tidal wave of emotions she'd endured that day had extinguished the inner flame that fueled Elphaba's fiery purpose and blazing passion. She was spent. "I don't know," the thin witch admitted wearily. "For now let's just eat some food and go to bed."

"Sounds good to me," Glinda agreed.

/

After such a trying day the girls slept together on the suite's decedent, emerald bed. It took Glinda awhile to situate her wings comfortably. She eventually wrapped them around her and Elphaba like a giant, downy duvet. They were exhausted and even the green woman's innate wariness couldn't keep her awake for very long.

Once both witches had drifted off a shadowy figure cracked open the door to their room.

**So how was it? Ideas and suggestions welcome!**


	3. What Now?

"Elphie?"

"Mmfmm…"

"Elphie wake up." Glinda's voice was squeaky with fear.

"Glin I'm sleepy," Elphaba mumbled. Her brow creased in mild irritation, but both green lids remained firmly shut.

"I think that someone was in our room." That had the green girl's attention. Immediately her eyes snapped open.

"_What_?"

"The sound of the door shutting woke me, but when I looked no one was there." Elphaba rolled free of Glinda's wings to check her bedside table. She'd purposely placed the Grimmerie, which the Wizard's guards had neglected to take from her satchel, within easy reach.

It was gone.

"Shiz," the witch cursed. "I knew we couldn't trust the Wizard." She scrambled off the bed, tense with fury. "We've got to get out of here."

"Now?"

"Now." The blonde bit her lip.

"You said there's probably a battalion of guards outside our door," she pointed out.

"We're not going out the door." Elphaba gaze jumped from her friend's face to the balcony and back again. Glinda paled.

"No," she exclaimed resolutely. "There is no way I'm going to jump from a balcony with the distant hope that these wings are functional."

"A levitation spell gave you those wings Glin; the whole purpose was to allow flight."

"No."

"Come on," Elphaba pleaded. "We'll have to escape eventually."

"No we won't." The green girl's train of thought came to a screeching halt.

"What do you mean we won't have to escape?" she demanded in utter confusion. "What other options are there?"

"We could stay here and be taken care of. The Wizard _said_ he wanted to _help us_."

"I thought we'd established that the Wizard is a lying fraud. Didn't you hear what he said about Animals? Glin we can't stay here and hope to remain safe from his power hungry tyranny."

The petite woman was strung tight with conflict and worry. Her hands kneaded together.

"If we run away we'll be fugitives. The Wizard's men will hunt us; we'll never be able to go home. It would be safer to stay here and try to work something out." Elphaba's heart clenched. They had returned to the same deadlock reached in the attic earlier.

"So you want to stay here?" The green woman's tone bore the distinct slime of disgust. Disappointment wavered in her eyes, promising to haunt Glinda if she didn't find the strength to go through with the escape.

"I can't just walk away from my life into some uncertain future," the blonde explained sadly. "I'm not like you; I'm not that strong."

"You're the one with wings," Elphaba sighed. "If you want to stay then I'm stuck here too." She turned away, shoulders sagging morosely.

"Elphie…"

"It's ok; I understand." Silence. Then, "You could be."

"I could be what?"

"Strong. If you let yourself forget the Glinda created by society you'd find a strength greater than all the armies of Oz." And with that she shuffled away into the suite's other bedroom.

A moment later Elphaba came sprinting back out. "We have to leave."

"What? Why?"

"The other bed is on fire. It was probably soaked in fuel and it won't take long for the flames to spread."

Glinda inhaled deeply and wrinkled her nose at the sudden reek of smoke. "Why didn't we smell that before?"

"I don't know." Instinctively the blonde made for the door. She was stopped by a viridian hand grasping her elbow. "If the Wizard ordered that fire to be set it means they want to flush us out. We've got to use the balcony."

"Don't you think he would've just had his guards arrest us?"

"I'm not in the mood to find out whether the Wizard feels like being blunt or subtle today. We're taking the balcony."

"Elphie I don't think you understand; I'm terrified of heights. I _can't_ fly."

"Yes you can." Behind them something crackled, followed by the roar of a fiery explosion. A surge of thick, slate colored smoke flooded the room. Elphaba dragged her friend through a pair of doors sheathed in gossamer curtains and onto the terrace. Below a thousand green houses glowed, like emeralds thrown over a bed of embers. Glinda's stomach churned at the sheer drop.

"Climb up on the railing."

"_What_?"

"Don't worry; I'll hold onto you." The blonde shook as she stepped gingerly onto a slim bar of gleaming, jade stone. Elphaba's strong hands were fastened firmly onto her upper arms. "Crouch down and spread your wings." Again Glinda obeyed.

_We're just fooling around, _she told herself resolutely. _We're not really going to jump. _

"Now push off," the green witch ordered. Her solemn, factual ton shattered all illusions of safety. Glinda's limbs turned to ice.

"I can't," she whimpered. "Elphie I really can't." A sigh of frustration rasped into the chilly night air.

"Close your eyes then."

"What?"

Glinda felt a sudden shove from behind and, in a slow motion second, she left the world of the sane. Two facts registered simultaneously in the blonde's mind; Elphaba's arms were wrapped tightly around her waist, and they were in freefall.

Hollow, panicky tingles raced through Glinda's body. Her wings thrashed frantically, but they were useless against the air rushing all around. Their flailing only succeeded in flipping the petite girl upside down, so she was facing the ground head-on.

"Spread your wings damn it," Elphaba snarled in her friend's ear. When there was no response, except perhaps more flapping, the green woman wrapped two legs around Glinda's torso. She moved her now free hands to the largest joints in the wings.

Air was burning at Elphaba's face, trying to tear her away from Glinda. Defiant of gravity's fierce pull on her the witch gritted her teeth and yanked hard. Two flashes of gold popped out to the sides, catching air like a parachute.

Glinda pulled up. Their freefall stopped, she and Elphaba now shot low and fast over the green plated roofs of the Emerald City. Glinda banked around a taller building and it blasted past in a rush of flashy windows. "Slower," the green girl instructed.

Her friend's wings flared outwards. The two witches spiraled downward until they dropped into an empty alleyway. As soon as solid ground was once again pressing against her feet Elphaba began to laugh. Not a nervous well-_that_-was-something sort of laugh, but a full out cackle of exhilaration and relief. It wasn't long before Glinda, breathless but still able to muster a giggle, joined in. They collapsed into one another in utter hysterics.

"I can't believe you pushed me off that balcony," the blonde exclaimed.

"You wouldn't have jumped any other way."

"We could've died."

"But we didn't."

"You're an insane, wicked, green thing."

"I know." This prompted another round of deep, liberating chuckles.

It wasn't until a few minutes later that they noticed a crowd of curious faces poking into the side street, eager to see what had come flying over their heads.


	4. Shock and Awe

**Don't you worry; Elphaba will get her enchanted broomstick (I would never cut that brilliant moment out of the story)…just be patient…**

"It's a girl."

"Are those wings?"

"Do you think she's a sorceress?"

"Who's that with her?"

The whisperer's were curious, but obviously not brave enough to come any closer to the witches or, more specifically, to Elphaba. At first the green girl was puzzled by their fearful reaction, everyone had been quite amiable to her complexion yesterday, but then she realized that her hair was loose and tangled into a dark, ragged mane. The usually neat frock she wore was similarly disheveled from being slept in.

Though Glinda's curls and dress were also tousled peopled were too distracted by her wings to notice much else. "What do we do now?" the blonde asked quietly. Elphaba's instinctive response to staring was clearly wrong for this situation, so she shrugged.

"I don't know."

Glinda offered an uncertain smile to the people converging warily on them. Some returned her grin uncertainly. Others only seemed more intimidated by her happy expression. There was an odd look of familiarity in the eyes of the onlookers, as though they somehow knew both girls from somewhere else.

"I'm sorry to startle you," Glinda apologized. She glanced downwards nervously. "My friend and I are visitors here and we're looking for a place to stay." Murmurs swept through the crowd. They seemed evenly divided between fright and awe.

Eventually a little girl stepped forward. She looked about seven or eight and her auburn hair was pleated into short, neat braids. Like everyone else the child wore sequins, feathers, and an array of glittery fabric. "My mama has a place for you," she exclaimed brightly, as if Glinda was a well loved family member.

"Thank you," the blonde replied, bending down so as to be at eye level. "What's your name?"

"Mirba," the girl replied. Clearly proud of the new friend she'd made Mirba took Glinda's hand and led her through the crowd, which parted like a flock of twittering, emerald birds. Elphaba followed closely behind.

Even at night the Emerald City was a hub of activity. Gas lamps, housed in turquoise tinted glass, cast cheery light on every bright, clean, wall. Carriages with shiny, golden wheels and well groomed horses bumped past on perfectly laid cobblestones. Glittery clothes in the latest style made most people look like flowers or decadent deserts.

Everyone stared. Mirba seemed to be enjoying the attention and, if the blonde's slowly growing grin was anything to go by, so was Glinda. Elphaba, on the other hand, was prickly with suspicion. She didn't understand the way citizens regarded her with respectful fear, and that made the green girl nervous.

Luckily Mirba led the witches down small side streets where there were no palace guards or agents of the Wizard to be seen. After a few minutes of walking the odd threesome emerged at the base of a towering building. Glinda gasped in absolute glee while Elphaba craned her neck upwards to gander at the enormous hotel. It was tall enough that the top floor was untouched by light from the streets and houses below. In fact the topmost half of the hotel was only visible because of enormous, emerald lamps creating a hallo of light from the roof.

"Your mother owns _Ozma Towers_?" Glinda asked Mirba, her excited voice edging into a squeal. The little girl nodded proudly.

"Glinda this is the most expensive hotel in the entire city," Elphaba hissed. "I only have a handful of gold pieces in my pocket; we can't afford a room here."

The blonde's face clouded with disappointment. She looked at Mirba sadly. "It's very nice of you to bring us here, but we don't have any money." The little girl shook her head, grabbed Glinda's wrist, and began dragging the petite woman inside. Behind a pair of flashy revolving doors was the most sumptuous lobby Elphaba had ever laid eyes on. Her feet sunk inches deep into an absurdly thick, jade carpet and, for the first time, the green girl noticed she was barefoot. Glinda too; they hadn't had time to dress properly before their nearly disastrous flight.

Old society ladies, who were gossiping on a cluster of vividly embroidered sofas, gaped like fish, flabby mouths sagging open. Elphaba graced them with a glare reserved only for those with the indecency to stare so blatantly. One of the women fainted dead away, as if she'd seen Kumbrica coming to hex her.

"Wait here," Mirba commanded, her tone surprisingly adamant for an eight-year-old. Glinda obeyed. She flexed her wings nervously as people began point.

"Elphie what's going on?" the blonde whispered. "Something's up."

Before the green girl could respond Mirba returned, pushing a flustered woman imperiously. "See Mama?" the child was exclaiming. "I told you she'd come." Elphaba arched an eyebrow. Who exactly did they think Glinda was?

"Good evening ladies," Mirba's mother greeted. Her sharp, birdlike features were shining with awe. She curtsied reverently. "Welcome to Ozma Towers."

"Thank you," Glinda replied graciously. "You're very kind. Unfortunately my friend and I don't have enough money to afford…"

"Nonsense," the woman scoffed. She offered a golden key. "This is to the Royal Suite on the twentieth floor." Glinda was so stunned by such an offer that Elphaba had to reach forward and accept the key.

"Thank you Mrs…"

"Mrs. Rayzan," the woman informed her.

"Mrs. Rayzan," Elphaba repeated, nodding. "Thank you for your hospitality." With that the green girl dragged her friend into an elevator. When they arrived at the twentieth floor the mechanical, copper plated doors swung aside to reveal a locked entryway.

Puzzled Elphaba inserted the key. The door swung aside to reveal a suite clearly designed for royalty. It took up the entire top floor and everything looked too immaculate to touch. Every inch of fabric shimmered with velvet or silk. Furniture, all of it either solid gold or ancient quoxwood, was accented with gemstones. An entire mine's worth of emeralds had been used in decorating this place.

Glinda squealed like a toddler and charged into the impossibly expensive room. It took her all of two seconds to locate the closet. "Elphie you've got to _see_ this!" she cried in total ecstasy. Elphaba nearly had a heart attack when she glimpsed the suite's already furnished wardrobe. It was the size of several Shiz dorm rooms. Plumage, lace, and pearls dripped from a plethora of silver hangers.

"If these outfits were sold they could probably feed Munchkinland for a year," Elphaba sneered in disgust. Before Glinda could insist on a makeover she set off to explore the rest of the suite. The green girl soon decided that such lodgings were higher than even the Wizard's standards, and could therefore only be meant for an Ozma.

But everyone knew that the Ozmas were redheaded, not blonde. Elphaba stalked into one of the three enormous bedrooms with a frustrated huff. She was met by a full wall oil painting of Lurline and Kumbrica. The fairy queen stood atop a mountain, wings outstretched and flaxen curls billowing. Below her Kumbrica, whose angular face was painted with a slightly greenish cast, smirked amusedly through a mane of wild, windblown hair.

It was the two iconic figures together that allowed Elphaba to make the startling connection. She froze, eyes bugging out.

The awe struck Ozians though Glinda was Lurline…

And they thought she was the Kumbric Witch.


	5. Paparazzi

**I sincerely apologize for the long wait and finicky nature of this fic...a demon known as finals has reared its ugly head and taken an enormous bite out of my free time…also I realized right after chapter four that I had not actually planned out this story very far ahead and (since the plots of my unplanned stories generally fall apart) I needed to backtrack and re-plan…I promise you the story will be better for it…**

Madame Morrible sat alone in her dark study watching Elphaba's file burn in her fireplace. Light from the crackling paper bathed the press secretary's face, twisting it into a ghoulish mask. If only Elphaba, and that pushover blonde sidekick of hers, were as easy to dispose of. Even with a spell to mask the fire's smoky odor they had somehow managed to escape their burning suite. The fish-like woman rubbed her temples, sincerely wishing that this business with her star pupil hadn't gotten so complicated.

Madame Morrible was not stupid. She had observed the guilty way Oscar dealt with the Governor of Munchkinland. She had seen the little, green bottle he carried around and the small picture of a beautiful, munchkin woman hidden in his room. The Emerald Palace kept up to date census records on almost every Ozian citizen. After reading Elphaba's file, and seeing the date she was born; nine months after the Wizard's time in Munchkinland, Madame Morrible had made an awful connection.

Of course nothing was definite, but if Oscar realized that he might have a child, what the deluded, old man wanted more than anything, such a child would wield much more power over him than his manipulative press secretary. So the file had to burn, and eventually Elphaba would too.

/

"Glinda who does this picture remind you of?"

The blonde cocked her head as she examined the oil painting. "Kumbrica and Lurline?" she replied in utter confusion.

"Who else?" Elphaba prompted. Glinda chewed her lip.

"I don't know Elphie," she exclaimed with a sigh.

"Look at _Lurline_," the green girl growled, jabbing a finger at the fairy queen in question. Her eyes were glowing, as if this was an essentially important matter. "Look at her _wings_."

Glinda pouted and cast one last glance at the painting. "Lurline's wings look like mine," she observed, still confused. "Elphie I don't understand what this has to do with anything."

"Glin Mirba, Mrs. Rayzan, and a great deal of the people out there…they think that _you're_ Lurline." The blonde's jaw plummeted.

"Wh..what?" she stuttered. "That's impossible." Almost subconsciously her gaze flickered to the lavish room's vanity. In a mirror of burnished silver she saw reflected the deity's trademark features; blue eyes, blonde hair, and, most importantly, a pair of feathery, golden wings. Glinda stumbled weakly onto the bed. "So that's why they gave us this amazing room for free?"

"I would assume so," Elphaba replied. She smirked lightly. "Don't look so upset about it; you should be flattered."

Glinda laughed breathlessly. With the truth now revealed she scrutinized the painting again. This time her eyes stopped on Kumbrica's beaming, emerald tinted face. "Elphie do you think…"

"That they think me to be Kumbrica?" the green girl finished. "Yep."

"Sweet Oz."

"It's rather shocking what people will believe," Elphaba agreed in mystification. "The Wizard will not be pleased." She grinned, enjoying such an idea.

"Do you think he knows where we are yet?"

"I hope not." There was a moment of tense silence in which both girls realized the gravity of what they were involved in.

"Elphie what are we going to do?" Glinda demanded eventually.

"Well right now we're going to sleep," the green girl replied. "If we're still alive tomorrow then another plan will be in order." She had a habit of shuffling her emotional responses away in favor of moment-to-moment logic and wasn't about to let go of it now. "Were there any nightgowns in that mansion of a closet?"

"Yes," the blonde replied. Elphaba headed towards the aforementioned closet with Glinda trailing after her. "How are you being so calm about this?"

Elphaba turned to Glinda and, for a moment, her serene demeanor slid away to reveal eyes swimming in doubt and fear. "I'm not, my sweet," she assured the smaller girl with a gentle squeeze of her hand. "Believe me, I'm not."

For some strange reason it made Glinda feel better to know that Elphaba; strong, fierce, stony Elphaba, was frightened too.

/

_Brring. Brring. _

Glinda awoke to the annoying, metallic purr of her alarm clock. She reached out towards where her bedside table should be, but encountered a lumpy mound of feather pillows. The blonde's face creased with puzzlement as she realized that the buzzer pounding its way into her head was off pitch.

It wasn't her alarm clock.

She wasn't at Shiz.

Glinda jerked upright to a dazzling, scrupulous suite.

_Brring. Brring. _Again the telephone called out shrilly. Before Elphaba could awake, and probably beat the thing to pieces in a fit of early morning crankiness, Glinda rolled out of bed and snatched the annoying invention.

"Hello?"

"It's Mrs. Rayzan your Highness," the hotel owner explained nervously. "There are some people down here who are interested in seeing you and your companion. Of course I would never mean to disrespect or bother you, but they're getting quite adamant. Should I have them removed?"

"Are they from the Emerald Palace?"

"I don't believe so." Glinda's nails tapped anxiously on a quoxwood end table.

"Tell them I'll be down shortly." She glanced at a gilded wall clock to see that it was already nine o clock. "Could you also have some breakfast brought up?"

"Yes, your Highness." The blonde could almost see Mrs. Rayzan bobbing in an overly reverent curtsy as she set the phone down. Glinda gently shook Elphaba awake.

"Hmm? What time is it?" The green girl blinked blearily.

"We slept in," Glinda explained. "Mrs. Rayzan is having breakfast sent up."

"Good, I'm starving." Elphaba stretched.

"Apparently there are people waiting in the lobby to talk to us," the blonde informed her friend excitedly.

"Guards?" It was so easy to arouse Elphaba's suspicions.

"I don't think so."

"Then I guess there's no harm in talking to them." Her stomach snarled. "_After_ we eat," she added decisively.

/

The elevator doors dinged open, followed by a lightning storm of popping flashbulbs. Glinda and Elphaba were temporarily blinded. When the spots cleared from their vision they were faced with a lobby full of eager reporters. The green girl now wore a clean, unruffled frock and her long hair was stiffly braided. Glinda's wings were accented by a low backed, emerald gown and perfectly curled tresses. She looked like the spirit of Lurlinemas.

Questions were hurled at the young witches from a respectful distance of about three feet. When Elphaba strode forward, out of the elevator, several of the most forward journalists shrank back. Their volley of queries, however, didn't cease.

"Are you Kumbrica and Lurline?"

"Why did you leave Oz for so long?"

"How old are you?"

"What are your real names?"

"Have you come to restore the Ozma?"

Degrees of skepticism and acceptance could be gauged by questions. Some reporters already believed that the girls before them were deities. Others assumed that this was all a trick. Most were caught somewhere in the middle.

"When Mrs. Rayzan said there were some people here to see us I didn't expect a small army," Glinda whimpered in Elphaba's ear. "What do I _do_?"

"You're the one with people skills," the green woman hissed. "Do what you always do."

Glinda turned back to the swarming reporters with a bright, winning smile. "Hello," she greeted, in a voice that was loud enough to be heard, but soft enough that everyone would have to hush if they wanted to understand properly. Almost immediately there was a general decrease in noise. "Hello," the blonde repeated. "Thank you for coming to see us. We're flattered by your attention."

"Who are you?" someone shouted impatiently.

"We're just two friends visiting the city," Glinda answered vaguely, unsure just how much information she should provide these strangers with.

"Why did you come here?"

"We came to speak with the Wizard." This reply brought about a rush of ambiguous murmuring and Elphaba nodded approval at the smaller girl's indistinct truthfulness.

"Have you met with his Ozness yet?" demanded a young, ginger haired journalist near the front.

"Yes." At this one syllable reply the redhead frowned.

"Well?" she challenged. "What did he have to say?"

"That's confidential," Elphaba interjected over whatever Glinda had planned to reply with. Her sharp, hazel eyes had zeroed in on a pair of palace guards jogging into the lobby. "We've got to go," the witch growled in her friend's ear.

Glinda nodded. "It's been nice speaking with you," she told the reporters, backing away. They rushed forward, but the elevator doors were already sliding shut.

**This chapter was a bit filler-ish but I couldn't seem to find a way around it…and it's the longest chapter so far (by a lot) so hopefully you won't be too peeved at me…**

**Good luck to anyone who has finals this week!**

**Please review!**


	6. Going Back

As soon as she and Glinda were inside their suite Elphaba slammed the elevator entranceway shut and locked it. Her heart pounded wildly as she tried to think of a way out. "Why did you tell me we had to leave?" Glinda complained. "I was having fun!"

"The Wizard found us," her green friend snapped unthinkingly. "Didn't you see the guards, or were you too busy being adored?"

"_Elphie!_" the blonde squeaked, resembling a kicked puppy. Elphaba's eyes flooded with guilt.

"I'm sorr…" Her apology was interrupted by the phone ringing. Elphaba grabbed the sleek, green receiver rather violently and slammed it against her ear. "Hello?" she demanded.

"Thank the Lord you're ok!" It was Oscar.

"Are you disappointed that the fire didn't get us?" Elphaba hissed.

"What?"

"Do you really expect me to believe that the bed in our suite caught fire by accident?" she rumbled. "It was soaked in some sort of fuel; you were trying to _kill _us."

"I most certainly was not," Oscar protested, sounding hurt. "We've launched a full investigation into who set the fire in your room, but I assure you it was not anyone under my authority."

"And what about the Grimmerie?" Elphaba challenged.

"Well that _was_ my doing," the Wizard admitted. "But I only borrowed it. Madame Morrible wanted to take a look to see if there was any antidote to Miss Upland's unfortunate condition." The green girl gnawed at her lip, conflicted on whether or not to believe him.

"So where do we stand now?" she asked.

"Well I'd love to have you and Miss Upland safe at the Palace as soon as possible," Oscar explained. "You two put on quite the show last night; have you seen the papers?"

"No."

"They're calling you the reincarnations of Lurline and Kumbrica," he informed her. "This will do wonders for my regime."

"I'm afraid I don't understand," Elphaba admitted through clenched teeth."

"For years Madame Morrible has been struggling to bring the remaining royalists, which are people who…"

"I know what royalists are," the witch snapped.

"Well they still believe that the Ozma is Oz's Lurline-appointed ruler," Oscar continued unabated. "However once you and Miss Upland become members of my council, it'll be a perfect way to bring them back into the fold."

"Who said anything about either of us joining your council," Elphaba snarled. "I thought I made it quite clear that I wanted nothing to do with your tyrannical regime." There was a pause as Oscar realized she had decided to be difficult again.

"I do not mean to offend, Miss Thropp," he began, voice low, parental, and a tad condescending, "but where will you go? People can get quite violent when religion is concerned; you and Miss Upland would be in grave danger if you returned to Shiz right now." Elphaba's heart beat a little faster at his observation. She thought of Frexspar and Nessarose; both diehard unionists who would probably disown her once they got word of this fiasco. "Besides," the Wizard continued, "at the Emerald Palace my sorcerers could work with you to remove Miss Upland's wings."

Elphaba wanted to tell the Wizard that she would never, not in a million lifetimes, work with him. However the green girl couldn't escape without Glinda's wings, and if she convinced the blonde to run away with her their lives would be hell. She couldn't do that to her best friend.

A plan began to form in Elphaba's head. She could return to the Emerald Palace, see to it that Glinda was safe, and then escape. If she got the Grimmerie back it wouldn't be terribly hard to replicate the levitation spell. Elphaba closed her eyes against an overflow of emotion and tried to convince herself that this was the best option. It didn't matter that she would probably never see Glinda again. It didn't matter that there would be nowhere for her to go. This way no one would suffer but her.

"Alright," she told Oscar icily. "Send a carriage; we'll be down in the lobby soon." Without waiting for a response Elphaba hung up.

"Was that the Wizard?" Glinda squeaked, curious eyes fixed on her friend. "What did he want?"

"He said the fire was an accident," Elphaba explained wearily. "We made a deal; a coach will be here soon to take us back."

"Back to the Emerald Palace?" Glinda exclaimed hopefully. The green girl couldn't bear to make eye contact with her friend. She was afraid that the blonde, for all her air headedness, would realize something was wrong.

"Yes. Back to the Emerald Palace."

/

The girls had only been gone for two days and Fiyero already missed them. He missed Elphaba's ivory smile. He missed her razor blade wit and passionate intelligence. Heck, he even missed her condescending comments.

The prince shook himself, realizing he'd only listed traits from the green girl, instead of his own girlfriend. _Get your head out of the clouds, _he told himself sternly. _Glinda's perfect. Besides, Elphaba would never fall for your idiotic charm. She's not that girl. _

"Fiyero!" A muffled shout pulled the Winkie from his musings. Someone was pounding urgently on his door. "Open up!"

Fiyero was surprised to find Boq standing anxiously outside his room. Before the Winkie could even ask what he was doing there, a newspaper was thrust forward. Grinning up from the wrinkled, inky paper was Glinda. Above her photo was a bold headline; _Lurline and Kumbrica Visit the Wizard of Oz_. Amazingly, that wasn't the biggest shock. No, the biggest shock was that, in the picture, a pair of large, feathery wings arched from Glinda's back.

"I got this from the Railway Square vendor this morning," Boq informed his baffled companion. "From the article it sounds as though no one knows either girl's real identity."

"Either girl? Elphaba's involved in this too?"

"Yeah," the munchkin replied. "They're calling her Kumbrica's reincarnation." Anger boiled in Fiyero's stomach. How dare those ignorant people classify Elphaba as a scheming, underhanded deity based solely on her skin color?

"So where are they now?" he wondered, skimming the article.

"The Wizard is holding them in the Emerald Palace?"

"Holding them?" Fiyero's head jolted up in alarm. "As in _against their will_?"

"That's how the paper phrased it," Boq shrugged. He pointed to a specific sentence.

_There is speculation that his Ozness has imprisoned the sorceresses to prevent a resurgence of royalist sentiment. _The prince's face quirked into an almost comical mask of confusion. "What the hell does that mean?"

"It means that Elphaba and Galinda…"

"Glinda," Fiyero corrected automatically. Boq glared.

"It means that Elphaba and_ Glinda_," he repeated, "could be in a mess of trouble."

A look of further puzzlement crept across the Winkie's face. "I don't mean to be rude Boq," he said, "but we aren't much more than acquaintances. Why did you come to me with this?"

"Because I know you care enough to help me get the girls out."


	7. Defying Gravity

**Only one review for the last chapter? Ouch…Hopefully there are other people reading who just choose not to review…**

**IMPORTANT: Next time I update this story the name will be changed to 'Those Who Ground Me' **

"Elphie what's wrong?" Glinda wondered. The girls had been back at the Emerald Palace for three days now. Oscar had returned the Grimmerie and Elphaba had spent nearly every moment since poring over it.

"Nothing's wrong," the green woman replied, not looking up from her notes. Glinda crossed her arms.

"I may be blonde, but I'm not an idiot," she chirped indignantly. "I can tell when something's bothering my best friend." This time Elphaba met the smaller girl's eyes. Glinda was frightened by the guilt, conflict, and sorrow she saw etched there.

"I just really want to find a way to fix your wings," Elphaba explained halfheartedly. "Once the Wizard and his advisors get everything settled we'll be too busy with politics to work on it."

"You don't have to spend every waking moment reading that drab, old, book though," Glinda scoffed, eyeing the Grimmerie with distaste. "I don't mind living with wings for a bit longer. They're actually kind of cool." To prove her point she flapped one feathery appendage, creating a gust of air that flipped Elphaba's notebook shut. "Besides," the blonde continued. "We've been stuck in this new suite for three days with nothing to do. I'm bored."

Elphaba smiled at her friend's pout, but the happy expression didn't quite reach her eyes. "Alright, my sweet; how may I entertain you?"

"Well, um…" Glinda's eyes searched the suite for a source of amusement and came up empty. "You could explain what you're working on."

Again something akin to guilt flashed across Elphaba's face. She averted her gaze to the Grimmerie. "I'm trying to figure out whether or not the levitation spell can be cast on an inanimate object," the green girl explained. "That way I'll be able to test possible cures on something that won't die if I mess up." Glinda winced at her blunt words. "Sorry," Elphaba apologized. "That was harsh."

"It's alright," the blonde responded. Suddenly her eyes lit with excitement. "Why don't you try out the spell on something right now?" Elphaba frowned.

"I'm not sure if it would work."

"Well you could still _try_," Glinda insisted, nearly bouncing with childish glee. She grabbed an ornamental vase from one of the end tables and handed it to Elphaba.

"I…I'm kinda nervous to try this again," the witch admitted. "What if I make another mistake?"

"I've already got wings," the blonde pointed out. Elphaba nodded, swallowing thickly, and began to chant. Her hands moved in mysterious, snake-like patterns and, slowly but surely, the vase began to rise. By the time the last syllables faded away it hung in the air as if suspended by an invisible string. "You did it Elphie!" Glinda squealed. She flapped her wings in spastic excitement, smacking the vase so it knocked Elphaba in the head.

"Ouch!" the green girl complained. With a smirk she shoved the floating decoration back at her blonde companion. Glinda ducked, and the vase smashed into the wall behind her. Both girls examined the pile of expensive-looking shards with guilty expressions.

"Whoops," Glinda giggled eventually. Elphaba smiled weakly and headed towards the cleaning closet to get a broom.

/

"Your Wizardship I wouldn't underestimate Miss Thropp's rebellious tendencies," Madame Morrible warned, pacing up and down Oscar's quarters. It was a warm night, so the doors to the balcony were open. Unfortunately even the intrusion of such a beautiful, breezy night couldn't lighten the press secretary's mood.

"They're just a pair of college girls," the Wizard argued. "I know that Miss Thropp's first encounter with us was a rough one, but I do believe that she'll come around to our side." A smirk crawled across Madame Morrible's face; half disgusted, half admiring.

"You clearly don't know Elphaba," she chuckled darkly. As if in agreement someone pounded rather violently on the door.

"Your Ozness?" The voice came from a certain green girl. Oscar hurried to let her in.

"Miss Thropp, what a pleasure!" he exclaimed, grinning. Elphaba, dressed in her thick, black frock, pointed hat, and wearing her satchel, smiled tensely back. "Where, may I ask, is Miss Upland?"

"Asleep," the witch replied as she entered stiffly. "Glinda doesn't know I'm here."

"Why _are_ you here, exactly?" Madame Morrible questioned.

"I'm here to discuss my future here," Elphaba replied cuttingly. "Or lack thereof."

"What?" Oscar demanded.

"I'm leaving," the green girl explained. "And I want you to be aware that Glinda doesn't know anything about where I'm going, or why. She's not to be held accountable for my actions."

"Miss Thropp we reached an agreement," the Wizard pointed out sternly.

"I told you I would come to the Emerald Palace, not that I would stay." Elphaba whirled around, headed for the door, but Madame Morrible intercepted her.

"I'm afraid we can't allow you to leave, dearie," she hissed, spreading her arms apart to prevent any escape. The trapped witch's frenzied eyes landed on a broom the maid had left leaning against one of Oscar's bookcases. She danced sideways to grab the impromptu weapon and prodded it threateningly at Madame Morrible.

"Guards!" the Wizard shouted. "Guards!"

"Let me go," the green girl snarled at her former headmistress, holding the broomstick like a quoxball bat.

"Or you'll sweep me to death?" Morrible oozed mockingly. Elphaba swung and caught her square in the jaw. As the press secretary went down a battalion of guards gushed through the door behind her. Elphaba fled to the balcony.

The Wizard's quarters were on one of the Palace's lower levels, but the drop from his deck to the ground was still unquestionably far and deadly. Oscar hoped that Elphaba wasn't desperate enough to try jumping or climbing to freedom. He followed the guards as they cornered their emerald quarry on the balcony railing and pushed past them to negotiate.

"Elphaba this is madness," he told her, forsaking the formality of 'Miss Thropp'. "I mean no harm to you or Miss Upland. There's no reason to run away like this."

"It's not bodily harm I fear," Elphaba replied, standing calming on the slick, granite railing as if the drop was no more than a foot. "I fear becoming part of a government that oppresses innocents for the purpose of keeping power. No, it's not bodily harm I fear, but harm to my integrity."

"Miss Thropp you have a strong moral compass, and I commend you for that, but you are too young to understand the complexities of ruling a…"

"Like hell I am," Elphaba snarled at the Wizard. "My father is the Governor of Munchkinland. Out of necessity my sister and I have both been trained extensively in the particulars of Ozian politics. Besides, I don't need more _experience_ to recognize that what you're doing is _wrong_." The witch's eyes blazed with a passion even Oz's ruler was intimidated by. She looked confident and determined enough to defy even gravity itself.

And a moment later, she did. Elphaba coolly leaned backwards and fell. Oscar winced, thinking he'd witnessed a suicide. Then, when he was about to turn away, a cackling flash of black and green blazed upwards, past the balcony. Elphaba, for that was what the flying object was, stopped for a moment to hover above him. She sat astride a now-enchanted broomstick, ebony hair whipping out behind her like a banner, smirking triumphantly.

Then Elphaba disappeared into the night.


	8. Left Behind

**I know I said I would change the name to 'Those Who Ground Me' but that name started rubbing me the wrong way right before I changed it…so I changed it to something else…hopefully it hasn't confused anyone too much**

**For some reason I always picture Fiyero as having brown hair and dark eyes…I know that Norbert Leobutz had blonde hair and blue eyes and that is the Fiyero most people (I think) picture but for some reason that image just doesn't work for me because it conflicts so strongly with the dark, Vinkun image of Fiyero I have from the book…it doesn't really effect the story but I don't want everyone jumping to correct me in their reviews**

Blazing through the night sky, Elphaba could hardly keep from laughing out loud. Wind sang in her ears as she gripped the life-saving broomstick and rejoiced at simply being free and alive. A few moments ago Elphaba hadn't been sure that she would be either in the near future. Her plan had been to confront the Wizard and then flee on foot, disappearing into the nighttime bustle of the Emerald City. Elphaba hadn't expected Madame Morrible to be in Oscar's chambers.

The witch could see now how faulty her plan had been. She was deeply grateful the broom had been clutched in her hands when she made her desperate fall, otherwise she would've had to cast the levitation spell on herself. If the pain had made her black out in midair…

Elphaba shuddered and pushed all unpleasant thoughts aside. She was safe, she was free, and she was _flying_ for Oz's sakes. It was _so_ much better than the first time, when she'd been too scared to really feel anything. An edge of instinctual fear sharpened Elphaba's nerves now, but it only heightened the experience. Her heart thrilled at the sensation of chilly, night air burning past. She grinned wickedly at the glowing, oblivious world sliding away below. It couldn't touch her; nothing could. She felt giddy and powerful.

Soon enough reality would set in. Elphaba would remember that she was now completely alone in the world. She would begin to imagine Glinda finding her note, returning to Shiz alone, and eventually forgetting their friendship. Nessarose's young, vulnerable face would start tormenting her. However, for now at least, Elphaba was safe from the emotional fallout of her actions.

A distant growl of thunder was quick to remind the green girl that emotions were all she was safe from. Already Elphaba could see a mass of roiling thunderclouds condensing overhead in pursuit of her.

_No doubt a parting gift from Madame Morrible, _she thought venomously.

The witch pointed her broomstick downwards towards the flat, emerald tiled roof of a traveler's inn. She recognized it as one in which commoners who had appointments with the Wizard often waited the days or weeks until they could see his Ozness. This particular building was only a block or two down from the Palace, quite inconspicuous, and would hopefully provide a hiding place until the storm moved on.

Elphaba lit quietly on the roof and realized, too late, that it was occupied. A shadowy figure stood near the edge, face turned towards the Emerald Palace. Cursing her luck, the green girl frantically scurried behind a chimney. Although it wasn't likely that anyone but the Wizard's guards were searching for her at present, the fact that she'd _landed_ on the roof, combined with her skin, would probably raise suspicions.

Elphaba heard a rustle of movement as her anonymous roof-mate turned in surprise. "Who's there?" he shouted. The witch froze upon hearing his voice and her breath hitched in utter shock.

"_Fiyero?_" she called disbelievingly.

"_Elphaba?"_ he replied with equal bafflement. The green girl rose from her hiding place. Faint light from the streets below allowed Elphaba to see just enough tousled brown hair and dark, shining eyes to identify the Winkie prince. Fiyero must've been able to recognize her too, because a moment later she found herself enclosed in a breath-stealing, bear hug.

"What in Oz's name are you doing here?" Elphaba wheezed, flushing in spite of herself.

"Looking for you," the prince explained as he set her down. "Boq and I saw the papers and came to…" Here he reddened with embarrassment. "Well we really weren't sure _what_ to do once we got here." Fiyero paused, grinning. "But it doesn't matter because I found you!"

"Boq's here too?"

"Yes," he responded. "But I think he only came for Glin…" Fiyero's face creased in concern. "Where_ is_ Glinda?"

Elphaba felt a pang in her gut. As joyful as this reunion was, in the end it would only mean more goodbyes. "Back at the Palace," she sighed.

"Well we'll get her out too," Fiyero assured the green girl, mistaking her sorrow for worry. His voice was full of naive bravado. "Then we can all go back to Shiz."

"No," Elphaba said sadly. She stepped away, shaking her head. "I can't go back to Shiz."

"Why not?" Then Fiyero's expression darkened. The prince seemed to finally realize that he didn't know the extent of what had transpired since the girls left. "Fae what _happened_?"

"We met with the Wizard," Elphaba began, trying to ignore the warm feeling she felt upon hearing his nickname for her. "He…he wasn't at all what we thought he was. The Wizard is a fraud. He's the reason Animals are being silenced and caged." She looked up; chin high, eyes glowing with resolve. "I ran away. I'm going to try and undo what the Wizard has started, even if I become a fugitive in the process." Fiyero's eyes had grown progressively wider as she spoke, and now they were roughly the size of dinner plates.

"A f..fugitive?" he stammered. "But Fae you can't just run away from your life. You can't make a split-second decision to…"

"I can," Elphaba interrupted firmly. "I can and I _will_."

"But Fae…"

"I've got to go, Fiyero," she told him. Her voice was softer now, and full of regret. "Don't try and stop me."

"Alright," the prince relented, apparently realizing that there was no way to prevent her leaving. Elphaba looked into his eyes and saw total bewilderment there. Bewilderment and more hurt than she wanted to think about. "But if you need a place to…to do whatever it is you're going to do…there's an empty castle in the Great Kells where you'd be safe. It's called Kiamo Ko; you'll find it near the headwaters of the Vinkus River."

The green girl was shocked that, after everything she'd just thrown at him, Fiyero's first thought was to offer her a hiding place. "Thank you," she told him, though those two words hardly began to cover the gratefulness she felt. An impulse surged through Elphaba and, since she didn't expect to ever see the man in front of her again, she gave in to it. The witch leaned upwards and pressed a brief, thankful kiss to Fiyero's cheek.

Then she swung astride her broom.

"Goodbye Yero."

/

Glinda awoke feeling rested and energetic, which had become an oddity in the last few days. Under normal circumstances Elphaba was an early riser, waking just after sunrise and usually pulling the blonde from slumber with her. This made for a slow, groggy start to Glinda's day. However that morning, for whatever reason, the green girl hadn't disturbed her sleep.

"Elphie?" Glinda sat up in bed, expecting to see Elphaba already seated at the vanity in the corner, hunched over the Grimmerie. Upon seeing that her roommate was nowhere in sight Glinda became slightly concerned. The feeling of worry grew when she realized that Elphaba's side of the bed was cold. "Elphie?"

No answer. Glinda swung out of bed and scurried to the green girl's impromptu desk. The Grimmerie remained, with a letter resting on its cover, but Elphaba's notebook was gone. Now truly frightened, Glinda picked up the note. It was written in her emerald friend's scrawling, chaotic hand, and in some places the ink had been blurred by wetness.

Elphaba had been_ crying_ when she wrote this? Glinda turned to read the letter with a thick sense of dread growing in her gut.

_Glin,_

_I didn't dare say goodbye in person, because you might somehow convince me not to go or, even worse, to take you with me. I couldn't live with myself if I managed to drag you into this rebellious mess my life has become. You belong in the Emerald Palace, being adored. I don't. The Wizard's world is not one I could ever live in. I'm going to fight his treatment of Animals with everything I am, even if I lose everything I was in the process. Please don't hold onto me, my sweet. Go back to your life. I'll be ok. _

_I cannot say if we will ever meet again. Just know that I will always miss you._

_Elphie_

Glinda stared blankly at the words for a long time, willing herself not to comprehend them. Unfortunately she couldn't put off reality forever. Slowly but surely the blonde's gaze was marred by tears. The solitary tears turned to whimpers and the whimpers to wracking sobs. Glinda slid to the floor and wrapped her wings around herself.


	9. The Search

**I apologize in advance for any typos in this chapter….my computer has a nasty virus and I will not be able to get it back for four to six days (if you want the full details, including how you may avoid getting the uncannily smart System Tool Virus please skip on over to my author's note for the newest chapter of All I Want For Lurlinemas) so I am stuck using a Mac computer and the accursed Mac keyboard which I loathe with a fiery passion and cannot type on with any degree of efficiency. **

"There's no need to be nervous, dearie," Madame Morrible assured Glinda for what felt like the thousandth time. "I will do all the talking. You just need to smile and wave."

"I know," the blonde replied, infusing her tone with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. It was the day after Elphaba's disappearance; the day Glinda Upland would be officially announced to the Ozian public as a future member of the Wizard's council. After much debate it had been decided that Glinda should neither confirm nor deny the claims that she was Lurline's reincarnation. Any questions about her green companion would be handled similarly, as news that Kumrbica's reincarnation was on the loose would have unpleasant consequences.

Of course Glinda didn't really care about the political ramifications of her friend's escape, which had been shoved into her ears by Madame Morrible. All she could comprehend was the fact that Elphaba had left her alone in a frightening, overwhelming situation.

The blonde was wearing a blue, frothy dress, tailored to accommodate her wings, that was so dazzling and expensive it should've left her giddy with joy. But instead of joy, Glinda felt loneliness, abandonment, and fear so intense it had formed a cold, black knot in her stomach. Without Elphaba this adventure in the Emerald City had turned from thrilling to absolutely terrifying.

"Wait until I announce you," Madame Morrible instructed the petite girl as she prepared to walk out onto the Grand Balcony. "Then make an entrance like you did during that party at the OzDust Ballroom. Make people love you." Without another word Oz's press secretary swept forward in a whirl of lime colored silk and powdered hair. Her appearance was greeted with polite, expectant applause.

"I am pleased to announce that, on this fine day, the Wizard of Oz has chosen to take on an apprentice, who will soon be added to his personal council," she exclaimed, voice amplified by a microphone affixed to the balcony railing. "You may recognize this future councilwoman from last weeks' newspapers. She is a brilliant, young sorceress currently enrolled at Shiz University. For her talent in sorcery the Great Oz sought her out and, when she bowed before his throne, he deemed her worthy of a place in the Emerald Palace's inner court."

Glinda swallowed down a sudden rush of tears. _Brilliant, young sorceress, _she thought bitterly. _That's Elphaba, not me. I'm really just a replacement for her. She's the one the Wizard wanted._

"So," Madame Morrible continued, unaware of the blonde's anguish, "without further ado I present Glinda Upland of the Upper Uplands, whom the Wizard has decreed shall henceforth be known as Glinda the Good."

On cue the teary girl tottered forward. Glinda dragged an unwilling smile onto her face, and found that it wasn't as hard as she'd imagined. Her year at Shiz had been full of false grins manufactured to please her airheaded friends. So the blonde beamed and sparkled and waved; looking the part of the princess the Wizard wanted her to be. Glinda had no delusions about her place on this 'council' Madame Morrible spoke of. She was to be a figurehead, not the sort of influential Grand Vizier Elphaba might've become.

Below the Grand Balcony hundreds of people cheered adoringly for the blonde, simply because she was beautiful. It made Glinda sick. The screaming Ozians below didn't know her. They couldn't see the naked hurt shining in her eyes. Even standing before so many happy citizens Glinda the Good felt utterly alone.

/

"You again? I told you the wait for an appointment with his Ozness is currently three weeks. Coming back to pester me again will not change that." Boq scowled at the Emerald Palace's Gillikinese receptionist, who clearly fancied herself above speaking to a munchkin.

"I'm not here to see the Wizard this time," he informed her huffily. "I'm here to see Miss Glin…uh…Glinda the Good." Boq corrected himself at the last minute, remembering that it was improper for someone of his standing not to use formal titles.

"Lady Glinda is very busy at the moment," the receptionist explained. "She doesn't have time to speak with commoners."

"I think she'll want to see us," came a smooth voice from over the munchkin's shoulder. Boq had the joy of seeing his snotty tormentor get quite flustered when she looked up to see a clearly displeased, Arjiki prince. "Is there any way we could see Miss Upland in the near future?" Fiyero asked the receptionist, though the cool power in his voice made it clear that his request was really an order.

"Well…I…um…certainly your Highness," the woman stammered. She turned to a telephone perched on the desk behind her and began to dial frantically. Boq watched in fascination. He'd never seen a phone up close before; they were only available in the wealthier areas of the Emerald City and Gillikin. Supposedly some of the newer dorms at Shiz had them, but he'd never been inside any but Briscoe Hall.

"Is her Goodness currently occupied?" the receptionist was asking into the receiver. She paused, obviously listening to a reply. "Alright, I'll have them sent up right away."

/

Upon hearing a knock at the door Glinda set aside the letter she'd been reading. It had been from her parents, sent by express mail. Apparently they were thrilled to bits that their precious daughter had been apprenticed to the Wizard of Oz. The blonde felt a tremor of happiness at having made her parents proud, no matter how misplaced that pride might be.

Another knock sounded against the ancient quoxwood of the door, this one more adamant, and Glinda hurried to answer it. Standing on the other side was a red faced munchkin, who had obviously run the distance to her suite. Seeing such a familiar, friendly face lifted some of the crushing loneliness that had weighed heavily on Glinda's shoulders the last few days. Unthinkingly, she flung herself at Boq.

"Oh Biq!" Glinda wailed, hugging him. "I'm so glad to see you. I've missed everyone at Shiz so, so much." The munchkin, stunned to suddenly be in her arms, didn't seem to care that the blonde's wings were battering his face, or that she'd gotten his name wrong again.

"I'm glad to see you too Miss Glinda," he comforted awkwardly. "Fiyero and I were so worried."

"Fiyero?" Glinda's head jerked up, searching for the Winkie prince. He stood a few feet behind Boq, looking conflicted.

"Hello Glinda," Fiyero greeted with a sad smile, dutifully opening his arms. Glinda wrenched herself away from the munchkin and sank into her boyfriend's embrace.

"Thank Oz you two are here," she whimpered, now weeping openly. "I've been so scared since Elphie left." The blonde felt Fiyero's arms stiffen around her.

"So she's really gone."

"Who?"

"Elphaba." Glinda nodded against his chest. After a few minutes of silent comfort the Winkie's curiosity got the better of him. "What happened Glinda?" he asked, running wondering fingers over her new, feathery appendages.

"It was an accident," the petite girl sniffled. "Elphie was trying to cast a levitation spell on herself so she could escape, but….something went wrong. I'm not sure what. Then there was a fire and we had to escape into the city and then…and then Elphie_ left_ me here."

"That's an awful thing to do," Boq exclaimed, blindly loyal to the blonde princess he so adored. "It was horribly selfish of Elphaba to leave such a good friend behind."

"Not it wasn't," Glinda responded as tears leaked back into her voice. "Elphie was trying to protect me. She even left the Grimmerie behind so I would have the best chance of removing my wings. Now she's probably starving and cold and alone in some Oz forsaken forest somewhere."

"It's alright," Fiyero shushed, shooting an even-I'm-not-that-brainless look at Boq. "I'll find Elphaba and bring her back. I promise." At the time Glinda thought that the Vinkun prince was offering her meaningless condolences. Little did the blonde know that Fiyero meant every word.

**I tried to think of a way to make this chapter less slow, but it seemed necessary to set everything up for the action of future chapters…this will definitely be the last slow chapter for a very long time; I promise!**


	10. Horrors

**Sorry for the long wait; I was sick and distracted…it won't happen again…probably :)**

"As the crow flies Kiamo Ko could be reached in two or three days by a man on horseback," Fiyero explained, pointing at the map spread before him. "Unfortunately the Great Kells are in the way, and with winter coming the only safe route is through Kumbrica's Pass."

"And how long does that take?" Glinda wondered warily.

"Three to four weeks," the Winkie admitted. He expected his girlfriend to whine and pout about him leaving, but no such reaction was forthcoming.

"You're sure that she went to Kiamo Ko?" the blonde asked instead.

"Yes." In truth, Fiyero couldn't have been less sure, and for a few minutes he was certain Glinda saw the lie in his eyes. Then she sighed and smiled weakly.

"I'll miss you, dearest. Promise me you'll be careful."

"I promise," Fiyero assured the blonde, pulling her to him for a hug. Glinda clung to the Winkie for a long, desperate moment, before finally letting go.

"Just bring Elphie home."

/

"Tell me if this becomes painful," Madame Morrible instructed as she tried yet another incantation on Glinda's wings. The two sorceresses were currently in the press secretary's private workshop. It was a windowless, stone room located somewhere in the lower reaches of the Emerald Palace. Somber, blackwood bookcases held tome after leather-bound tome on the art of sorcery. In the center of the dim room there was a clean, metal table, on which Glinda was currently seated.

Ever since Fiyero left the Emerald Palace, on what the Wizard had been assured was a 'tribal pilgrimage' that had absolutely nothing to do with Elphaba, the blonde had spent at least an hour having her wings examined by Madame Morrible. Even with the help of the Grimmerie, Oz's press secretary was having very little success finding a safe way of removing the feathery appendages.

Today Madame Morrible had informed Glinda that she would be trying a simple removal spell. So far it was hadn't failed. An odd, chilly feeling was creeping through the petite woman's wings. The sensation, though slightly disconcerting, made Glinda's newly acquired flight muscles feel loose and relaxed. "I think it's working!" she told her former headmistress excitedly.

"Wonderful, dearie," Madame Morrible exclaimed with significantly less enthusiasm. For a few blissful seconds Glinda began to believe that this spell might really be the one. Then the frigid magic reached the place where wing met shoulder and didn't stop. Cold seeped into the blonde's arms, leaving them limp as a pile of rubber bands.

"Madame, it's spread past my wings," she squeaked.

"Sweet Oz!" Madame Morrible grumbled in frustration. "Alakra namen." Glinda felt the magic halt, tremble, and then dissipate.

"What was that?"

"A stopping charm," the press secretary explained. "There's no way to reverse a spell once it's been cast, but it is possible to _stop_ small caliber spells before they've finished working."

"Oh." Glinda suddenly felt very young and naive. "Will that be all for today then?"

"I suppose so," Madame Morrible sighed, sounding more angry than regretful. "I really thought this one might work. Oh well; there's always tomorrow." The blonde met her mentor's grin with a weak, wobbly smile. She hopped off the table and made to leave.

"Wait a moment, dearie," the older sorceress called. "If you feel the spell beginning to work again come find me. I'm nearly certain the stopping spell I used will work, but if it doesn't there's a stronger one in the Grimmerie."

"Thanks," Glinda replied. "Where will I be able to find you?"

"Down here; I intend to be studying late tonight. Just remember to knock first." The blonde left her former headmistress muttering something about a 'test subject'.

/

"Are you alright Miss Glinda?" The blonde looked up to see Boq waiting dutifully outside her door. Oscar had been quite happy to give the munchkin a nearby room to stay in, and Glinda hadn't yet decided if she was annoyed or grateful for his hospitality.

"I'm fine, Boq," she yawned. "Just tired."

"Is there anything I can do Miss Glinda?"

"You could stop calling me that," the blonde snapped. "We've known each other for long enough to be beyond such titles."

"Alright Mi…Glinda. Goodnight."

"Goodnight Boq."

As Glinda prepared for bed she couldn't help but wonder how Elphaba had justified running away from all this. The blonde had everything she'd ever wanted; maids at her beck and call, a closet full of lavish dresses, and absolute adoration from the whole of Oz. Of course, Elphaba wouldn't have cared for the clothes or handmaidens, but surely the green girl would've enjoyed being loved and admired.

Glinda knew that, in theory, the Wizard was doing unethical things. However Oscar Diggs and Madame Morrible had been nothing but pleasantries towards her; surely they weren't capable of the sort of things Elphaba thought them guilty of. "Oh Elphie," the blonde whimpered, slipping into bed. "Why do you always have to _think_ so much?"

/

Glinda awoke with an indescribable, but also undeniable, feeling that something wasn't right. On the wall opposite her bed a stately pendulum clock informed her that it was well past midnight. Scowling at having woken at such an inconvenient time, the blonde rolled over and tried to fall asleep again. Her quest was in vain. After only a few minutes of lying still, a nagging sense of claustrophobia crept into Glinda's stomach. She rolled out of bed and started to pace, but soon even that couldn't suppress the blonde's unreasonable need to be on her way _somewhere_.

_Maybe this is a side effect of Morrible's spell, _she considered. Several minutes and an internal debate later, Glinda had decided that this sudden, unexplainable feeling must indicate that the stopping charm had failed. Slipping into a silky, backless, blue robe the blonde set off to find Madame Morrible.

No one saw Glinda on her way into the Emerald Palace's lowest floor, except a handful of guards who offered her nothing more than a nod of the head in greeting. The wings on her back provided all the identification she needed. By the time Glinda reached the door to Morrible's workshop she was fairly shaking with unexplained anxiety.

"Madame?" the petite woman called, rapping hesitantly on the door. She was met with only resounding echoes. Upon tugging at the handle Glinda found that the heavy, iron bolt was unlocked, so she showed herself in. The dank room was totally empty, but all the oil lamps were lit. "Hello?"

This time Glinda heard a sort of muffled yelp emit from behind one of Morrible's darkwood bookcases. Curious, the blonde inched closer to the odd piece of furniture. She was surprised to see an unnatural groove where the bookcase met the wall. Glinda tugged on it, and the shelves slid aside to reveal a shady passageway leading downwards.

Glinda knew that she shouldn't snoop. This was Morrible's private study and if she had a secret door it was none of the blonde's business. She was about to turn away when another cry, this one louder, drew a chill down her spine.

Cursing whatever force had compelling her to go traipsing through the Emerald Palace at such an indecent hour, Glinda slipped into the ominous corridor. As she walked, slipper-clad feet making no noise at all, the shrieks of pain became louder and louder. The blonde also became increasingly convinced that the screams were not quite human.

"Relek namen ratoo krajun eleka," Madame Morrible was chanting. Her spell concluded and the wails became more frenzied. "Darn it; I thought that one was at least going to do _something _to those blasted wings," the press secretary muttered. She huffed out a deep, frustrated sigh. "Oh stop your shrieking! Animals should be _seen_ and not _heard_."

By now Glinda had reached the end of her short journey. The hallway opened into a damp, chilly room. It was lined with stacks of rusty cages, each one full of wet, dirty looking rags. In the middle of the open space stood Madame Morrible, face contorted into a look of grim concentration. Something brown, furry, and winged writhed on the floor before her. Glinda looked closer and felt her blood run cold.

It was Chistery.


	11. Leap

**I was sick again this week, but this time I wasn't sick **_**and**_** distracted so I managed to get a chapter done, despite the fact that I am currently rushing to finish three books at the same time (The Great Gatsby for school, Mere Christianity for a class my dad is teaching at my church, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians because my friend and I have a deal that if I read Percy Jackson she will watch Wicked)…why aren't there more hours in a day?**

A tiny, frightened gasp rasped out of Glinda's throat. The sound was hardly more than a squeak, but somehow Morrible heard it. She turned slowly, figures arranging themselves into a kind, sympathetic facade. "Oh, Miss Upland," the press secretary crooned as she subtly blocked Glinda's view of Chistery. "I'm so sorry you had to see that. Unfortunately this is the only way to safely remove your wings, dearie. I need something to test the more powerful spells on, and Chistery is the only other specimen that was affected directly by Elphaba's levitation spell."

Glinda was horrified. She was shocked to the core that Madame Morrible, her encouraging, if slighting arrogant sorcery teacher, could be capable of justifying such torture. The blonde suddenly realized that this was the sort of thing Elphaba had understood would happen if the Wizard continued to treat Animals so poorly. This was what had allowed her green friend to walk away from all of Oz's adoration, and if Glinda had been able to see that such things would happen she would've followed her.

Madame Morrible stepped forward, arms outstretched in a comforting gesture, and Glinda took a frightened, tottery step backwards. Her wide, stunned eyes regarded the fishy woman as a monster. The blonde's movement had taken her closer to the cages lining the press secretary's chamber and for the first time she realized that the rags inside were not rags at all. They were Animals; huddled and miserable and too frightened to even whimper.

Glinda turned and ran. Her only thought as she sprinted towards her room was that she had to get out of there _right away_. Not just out of Morrible's dungeon of torment, but out of the entire Palace. Fiyero's map of Kiamo Ko was still spread conveniently on the blonde's end table, a red X showing her where she needed to go.

_Two or three days on horseback, _Glinda thought, tracing a straight line over rough parchment from the Emerald City to Kiamo Ko. Surely flying would be faster than even horseback. The blonde quickly dressed in one of her sturdier travelling frocks and threw on a white, button-down coat since she'd heard a snowstorm was blowing in from the east. By that time Madame Morrible was knocking at her door.

"Miss Upland, please open up," she called with false cordiality. "I know that you're upset but we need to talk. You don't understand…"

Glinda tuned the conniving woman out. She was tired of having Morrible and Oscar explain why the things they did were, in the grand scheme of things, good for Oz. She was tired of hearing that Elphaba was irrational and confused. Glinda stormed onto the balcony into a whirlwind of frigid air. There wasn't any snow falling yet, but a thick fog had settled over the city. Clouds muffled the bright, green lights below and blacked out the night sky above. For a moment the blonde's resolve wavered. Then she heard Madame Morrible's cruel fist pounding away at her door and she stepped up on the railing.

It was easier to do this time, because the sheer length of the drop before her was obscured. Still Glinda trembled as she considered trying to fly without Elphaba's help. Then a flash of Chistery's contorted, panicked face coursed through her head and she flushed with anger. Before she could think too much, Glinda pushed off.

/

_"What's so interesting about the moon tonight, my sweet?"_

_ "Nothing much. I'm just missing my parents a little."_

_ Pause._

_ "I don't understand the connection."_

_ "Whenever I miss someone I look at the moon and think that sometimes, somewhere in Oz, they'll be looking at the same moon." _

Elphaba awoke to the light of a full, ivory moon spilling onto her face. She'd been asleep in the highest room of Kiamo Ko's tallest tower. Apart from a little dust, which her broom had quickly remedied, the entire castle was in surprisingly good condition. The stairs didn't creak, the roof didn't leak, and, despite violent Vinkun windstorms, the archaic stone walls refused to sway or groan. There weren't even any mice. Though Elphaba appreciated these conveniences the only thing she could think of, while sitting alone in bed, was that the total silence made Kiamo Ko awfully lonesome.

Outside her wide, east-facing window vast, wild mountains hulked across the horizon, bleached silver by the full moon. Beyond the taller peaks an oppressive, stormy cloudbank hovered over the foothills. It looked like a nasty squall was blowing in, so Elphaba moved to the hearth to light a fire. She was tired, her life over the last few days had been far from pleasant, but the full moon was so bright in her window as to chase all drowsiness away.

With a sigh the green girl moved to her bedside table, which held an enchanted crystal ball. The glass sphere had been purely decoration until a few days ago, when Elphaba had used a spying spell on it. "Show me Animals in danger," she commanded. The crystal ball glowed obediently before flooding with too many flashing images to count.

"Show me whoever needs me most," the witch corrected, hoping to narrow her search. However, instead of showing her Animals, the sphere dragged up a flickering image of Glinda. Almost unconsciously Elphaba leaned in closer, eyes flaming with concern. Her friend was airborne and struggling through a vicious snowstorm. She was shivering and her wings looked almost too frozen to function. Elphaba would've had no clue where the blonde was if it weren't for the bristly tops of quoxwood tree periodically whizzing by. Glinda was somewhere in the foothills of the Kells.

/

Glinda had lost the ability to distinguish between hot and cold. Was her face burning or freezing? Was the stiff feeling in her fingers a result of fire or ice? Were the flecks of wetness flying at her out of the night flaming or frigid? All the blonde knew was that everything hurt. Every halting breath seared her lungs and each beat of her numb wings was exhausting. She could hardly see through the blizzard anymore.

Glinda berated herself for being stupid enough to run away into a snowstorm. Now she was lost somewhere in the Vinkus with no food, no shelter, and no way of finding Kiamo Ko. She'd been flying strenuously for hours, hoping against hope that she'd find a village, or even a mountain cave, in which to stay the night. Now the blonde could feel her strength waning with every moment. It wouldn't be long before she collapsed.

Suddenly delicious warmth wrapped itself around Glinda's limbs. It wasn't the burning sensation that came from intense cold, but real, gentle heat. The seductive feeling spread to Glinda's head and she felt her weary muscles relax. A moment later the blonde's eyelids drooped halfway shut. Almost as an afterthought Glinda realized that her wings had stopped pumping; she was falling out of the sky. Through bleary eyes the petite girl watched hazy, white air rush past. Then she saw a thin, cloaked speck emerge from the storm. It was diving towards her.

_That thing might hurt when it hits me, _Glinda thought mildly. Then everything was black.


	12. Together Again

Glinda drifted in and out of consciousness for a long span of time before she came around for good. When she did her memory of the last few blurry hours consisted of darkness, a warm bed, and having something soft and honey-tasting spooned into her mouth. The taste of that mysterious dish lingered on the blonde's tongue as her eyes fluttered open. "What happened?" she mumbled.

"You flew into a blizzard, you little idiot."

Glinda smiled as she managed to focus on the worried, green face looming over her. "Elphie."

Elphaba's lips twitched into a brief grin before agitation took over her features. "What were you thinking?" she demanded. "You could've died." Glinda tensed as dark thoughts filled her groggy head.

"I had to leave the Palace," she murmured. "Morrible…Chistery…" The blonde shuddered delicately. "I had to leave."

Instead of pushing for answers Elphaba just nodded in understanding and moved from her perch on the edge of the bed to slide beneath the covers. Glinda eagerly latched onto her roommate's waist. "You could've gone somewhere else; back to Shiz or home to Frottica," the green girl pointed out. "Coming here was…foolish."

"I wanted to find _you_," Glinda explained, face burrowed into her friend's chest. "I should've gone with you the first time you suggested it." Elphaba sighed and stroked the blonde's hair.

"Your lips were _blue,_ Glin; I was almost too late." The witch sounded deeply shaken. "Promise me you won't ever be that stupid again."

"I promise," Glinda chuckled against Elphaba's dress. The fabric smelled sweet, almost syrupy. "Why do you smell like honey?"

"There are some wild bee hives in the castle garden. I've been gathering honey; all the other food I managed to get my hands on is pretty bland."

"Don't they sting you?"

"No. They're very friendly bees."

"Oh." For a moment the companionable silence was broken only by logs crackling in the fireplace. "What time is it?" Glinda wondered offhandedly.

"Almost dawn." Her forehead creased.

"How did I get here so quickly?"

"The storm must've carried you."

"Like a tornado?"

"No," Elphaba chortled. "Not like a tornado at all."

"Don't laugh at me, Elphie," Glinda chided. "We can't all be as smart as you." The blonde felt her friend shake with mirth.

"I would never laugh at you, my sweet." The green girl paused, thinking. "How did you know where I was anyway?"

"Fiyero," Glinda replied drowsily. She was still exhausted from her flight. "He left a few days ago to look for you."

"Look for me? Why?"

"Because he loves you, silly," the blonde slurred. Elphaba drew in a sharp breath.

"What?"

"He loves you," Glinda repeated. "We all love you; me and Boq and Fiyero. We weren't just gonna let you disappear."

"Oh." Elphaba said something else then, something along the lines of 'thank you', but the blonde witch was too far gone to hear.

/

Fiyero had always felt comfortable in the forest. His childhood memories were seasoned with days spent in the woods stalking deer or picking Vinkun blackberries. Even untamed forests, like the one he traveled through now, had never made the Winkie uneasy. However as Fiyero rode past trees that had never seen a human before, astride a bay stallion named Bhookus, he felt decidedly uncomfortable.

It wasn't because the prince was wondering why he would travel across Oz to help a girl he hardly knew, though that certainly should've been troubling. No, Fiyero was on edge because someone was watching him. He couldn't quite put his finger on how he knew, but he did. For awhile the Winkie ignored it, thinking his watcher would reveal itself in time, but soon he grew tired of the anonymous gaze burning into his back.

"Hello?" Fiyero shouted, reining Bhookus to a halt. The only response was a couple of squirrels chattering angrily in the treetops, wondering if this strange, noisy intruder was dangerous. Fiyero huffed in irritation. He was certain his instincts weren't mistaken; someone _was_ watching. "I know you're out there," the Winkie hollered. "Show yourself!"

For a moment there was absolute stillness. To an untrained ear such a lack of sound would indicate that the Winkie was alone. However Fiyero knew that nature would never consent to holding its tongue so utterly…unless something menacing was nearby.

_Click. _

Fiyero heard the gun cock just in time to duck. There was a resounding shot and something grazed his shoulder. Bhookus whinnied in terror and bolted forward without being prompted. Fiyero crouched low in the saddle as his steed galloped deeper into the wood. A second bullet whistled over the prince's head. He uttered a colorful Vinkun curse and spurred his steed faster.

"Come on Bhookus," Fiyero muttered. "Now's not the time to go soft on me." Behind him there were no sounds of pursuit, but the Winkie didn't allow his horse to slow even a featherlength. Eventually the pair of fleeing travelers reached a river cutting straight through the forest. Bhookus was wheezing and his neck was flecked with sweat, but the beast didn't hesitate to throw himself into the water.

Violent, icy liquid surged around Fiyero's torso as he clung to the saddle, desperately hoping that whoever was following wouldn't take this opportunity to fire another shot.

"Sweet Oz, he's in the river," someone behind him cawed in aggravation.

"So what? Shoot him."

"I can't now. What if I hit the horse?"

"It's not like it's a Horse, Kali."

"Well it's a beautiful animal."

"We can't let him escape."

"I know that."

By now Bhookus's thrashing hooves had almost reached the far shore, and Fiyero was beginning to think that he might make it out of there alive. As his horse struggled up the bank the prince looked backwards and saw that there was no one watching from the other side of the river. Confused, Fiyero turned to face forward again.

_Click. _

There was a pistol pointed at his head.

**Yay! Another cliffie…**

**If anyone's interested I recently started a blog on my website (there's a blue link to it at the very top of my profile page that says 'homepage')…I promise that it will be at least slightly entertaining (and will probably feature Wicked/ fan fiction news eventually)…please check it out and comment if you've got the time :)**


	13. Cayke and Kalidah

Fiyero froze, aware that any sudden movements would probably get his head blown off. The person pointing a gun at said head was, in fact, not a person at all but a very angry looking Cougar. Behind the furious Cat stood a black and white feathered Stork in a heavily embroidered vest. "Why are you here, human?" the Cougar demanded as his lips pulled back into a snarl.

"I'm just passing through," Fiyero replied steadily. The Stork let out a caw of disbelieving amusement.

"This is the largest unsettled forest in Oz, boy," she cackled. "Where do you expect us to believe you're going?" For a long moment the Winkie debated which answer was less likely to get him killed. He settled on the truth.

"I'm traveling to Kiamo Ko." A look passed between to the two Animals.

"And why exactly are you traveling there?" the Cougar hissed suspiciously.

"I'm looking for a friend of mine." Fiyero suddenly wondered if his tormentors might know Elphaba. They were Animals after all. "Perhaps you're acquainted with her," the prince continued. "She's tall with long black hair and green skin."

"Sweet Oz, Cayke he's talking about the witch," the Stork exclaimed.

"The Wizard probably sent him after her," Cayke, the Cougar, snarled.

"Why would a boy like this be working for the Wizard? You know the Great Oz rarely employs Vinkuns."

"He's probably trying to trick us. Besides, this human has no right to be parading around in our forest."

"Actually I do," the Winkie interrupted. "My name is Fiyero Tiggular and, technically speaking, my family owns this land."

Kalidah, the Stork, who had obviously recognized his name, looked mortified. "Now look what you've gotten us into, Cayke," she scolded. "He's the Oz damn _prince_ of the Arjiki Nation."

"I suppose we've _got_ to kill him then," the Cougar sighed, though he didn't sound very upset. "Can't have him running off to tell his family."

"If you let me go I'll have no reason to tell anyone," Fiyero assured them quickly. "I just want to find my friend. That's all."

"Come on, Cayke," Kalidah implored her companion. "Let's just take him to Kiamo Ko. If the witch doesn't recognize the boy I'm sure she'll do much worse to him than you're capable of with that gun."

"She _does_ have quite a temper," Cayke allowed, grinning a little. "Alright, we'll let him live. For now." Fiyero wasn't quite sure whether to be relieved or terrified.

/

The sound of Elphaba shuffling out of bed at some ungodly hour roused Glinda from sleep the next morning and, as she came to, the blonde smiled. Usually such a thing would annoy her to no end, but, after weeks of separation, it was a pleasant reminder that her best friend was close by. "Wake up, my sweet," the green woman whispered. "There's something I want you to see."

"I'm tired," Glinda complained, cuddling deeper into the blankets.

"You can fly miles through a snowstorm but you're too lazy to get up in the morning?"

"Yep," the blonde mumbled sleepily. "Now go away."

"Vinkun sunrises are truly beautiful," Elphaba insisted. "It's a shame to miss even one."

"I've seen pictures," Glinda grumbled.

"Fine," the emerald witch sighed. She'd barely had time to move away before her friend drifted off again. Glinda resurfaced a second time when Elphaba brought her a bowl of honey-seasoned porridge. She still felt a lingering exhaustion permeating every muscle in her body, particularly those used for flight. Her wings felt sore enough to fall off. "Feeling better?" Elphaba wondered.

"Not really," the blonde admitted, wincing as she sat up. For the first time Glinda got a good look at her friend's new abode. It was cozy and geared more towards functionality than appearance, but everything about the castle tower screamed Elphaba, from the books stacked in one corner to the sheets of parchment spread across her desk. "So," Glinda began awkwardly, "what have you been doing since we last saw each other?"

"Thus far I've just been trying to figure everything out," the green witch explained. "There are several ways in which to fight the Wizard, and I'm hardly equipped to try every option. Figuring out the best method of resistance is turning out to be a very challenging task."

"Well now you've got my help," Glinda pointed out proudly.

"I appreciate your support, my sweet, but that's only going to make things more complicated." The blonde pouted in confusion.

"Why's that?" Elphaba opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a knock at the tower door. Glinda shrieked, startled, and dove beneath the bedcovers.

"Hello? Witch Elphaba?" called a slightly nasal, feminine voice

"Who's that?" the petite girl whispered. Elphaba rolled her eyes, probably in exasperation at being called a witch.

"One of my new…acquaintances." She strode to the door and opened it to reveal a very flustered Stork. "Kalidah I told you not to call me 'Witch Elphaba'."

"But you are a witch."

"And you're a Stork. But I don't call you Stork Kalidah." The bird seemed to mull this over for a moment before shrugging.

"I didn't come to discuss particularities of speech. Cayke and I found a boy in the forest who claims you're a friend of his."

"That must be Fiyero!" Glinda squealed. Kalidah peered around Elphaba to get a look at the blonde.

"Who's she?"

"Another friend of mine," the green woman responded brusquely. "What did you do with the boy you found?"

"Well, don't you keep high company," the Stork observed, ignoring her question. "First a Winkie prince, now Glinda the Good."

"Kalidah? The boy?"

"Oh right. Well of course Cayke wanted me to blow his head off."

Elphaba's blood turned to ice. "You didn't…"

"No. I convinced that crazy old Cat to bring the Winkie here. They're waiting on the castle steps." Something seemed to occur to Kalidah just then, because a queer look of concerned amusement tugged at her beak. "It's probably best to go now; you know how trigger happy Cayke can get when he's edgy."

Elphaba nodded tensely. She turned to look at Glinda, who was still halfway cowering behind a quilt. "I'll be back in a few minutes," the witch assured her friend. "Apparently Fiyero needs rescuing." Then she brushed past Kalidah and hurried downstairs.

**In case you haven't figured it out yet, Kalidah and Cayke are more comic relief characters than anything else…they probably won't play a huge role in the story, but they'll pop in from time to time…**


	14. Grateful

**To everyone who asked, yes, Cayke is pronounced like 'cake'…the schematics of his name were going to constitute a later comic relief plot point (and probably will still), but you guys beat me to it **

Among the Arjiki Tribe Kiamo Ko was quite legendary. It had been the haunt of numerous powerful leaders and, until recently, was the official secondary residence of Fiyero's family. Technically the royal family still owned it, though the Winkie prince had never been to Kiamo Ko before.

The castle was built against the face of a sheer, black cliff and was constructed from the same dark stone that supported it. Despite uncountable years standing sentinel over an empty forest, Kiamo Ko still managed to convey a solid sense of majesty.

"It's pretty impressive, huh?" Fiyero asked Cayke, trying to make conversation.

"Don't try any of your distraction tricks on me, human. I'll shoot you first and ask questions later." The prince snapped his mouth shut and wondered, for the tenth time, if Cayke was mentally unsound

He and the Cougar were standing on Kiamo Ko's front steps. Or, rather, Fiyero was standing and Cayke was pacing around the Winkie, gun cocked and ready. All in all, it was not a very comfortable position.

"Well it looks as though the mighty Prince Tiggular has been taken captive," chuckled an amused voice from the castle doors. Fiyero looked up in relief.

"Elphaba." An unexplainable lightness possessed his limbs upon seeing the green girl alive and well. "I was so worried about you."

"_You_ were worried about _me_?" Elphaba laughed, striding down the steps. "You really are brainless." Cayke's eyes flickered between the witch and Fiyero.

"You know him?" the Cougar growled.

"Yes, Cayke. You can put your gun away." The Cat holstered his weapon, looking almost disappointed.

/

Elphaba wasn't sure how she felt, having Fiyero standing before her. On the one hand, Elphaba's stomach was doing back flips at the way he was smiling at her. On the other hand, having him around made everything so much more complicated. "Nice of you to drop by," the green girl commented, careful to keep her tone dry and sarcastic. Fiyero chuckled.

"Did you really think you could ditch your friends so easily?" he asked, still smiling that unfairly handsome smile. "I have such a reputation for chasing women that Glinda employed me to go after you the moment I arrived."

Elphaba saw Fiyero's humor for what it really was; a facade behind which his emotions might be hidden. Ever since that incident with the Lion Cub he'd been using it less and less, at least around her, but now it looked as though the old walls were back in place. "Well I'm sorry to say that Glinda seems to have shown you up, in terms of chasing me," the green girl told Fiyero, responding to his joking with her own wittiness.

"Glinda's here?" The prince looked utterly baffled.

"She arrived just last night," Elphaba explained, serious now. "She hasn't told me what it was yet, but _something _made her desperate to leave the Emerald Palace." She paused, fixing Fiyero with a curious look. "What's your excuse?"

"For what?"

"Coming after me?"

"Like I said, Glinda sent me after you," he teased weakly. Elphaba glared pointedly at the Winkie, as though reminding him that his pretense didn't fool her. For a moment no words passed between them.

"So will Fiyero be staying here then?" Cayke asked awkwardly.

"Yes," the witch replied immediately. "You'd better not shoot at him again."

"Kalidah shot at him, not me," the Cougar defended. "I just took the gun when she went all soft about shooting a horse."

"Speaking of which, where is my horse?" Fiyero wondered. The level of concern in his voice seemed uncharacteristic for such a supposedly uncaring person.

"Kalidah tethered him in the old stable," Cayke explained with a roll of his feline eyes. "I swear that crazy Bird values horseflesh over sentient life. She's _crazy_." The total absurdity of _Cayke_ calling anyone insane brought about a surge of giggles that Elphaba barely contained. Luckily the Cougar padded away towards the forest moments later, so she was able to let her mirth show.

"Who are those two?" Fiyero demanded. "Are they part of the Resistance?"

"They're subversive Animals, but as far as I know there _isn't_ a formal Resistance yet. Kalidah and Cayke were just paranoid and lucky enough to leave civilization before their kind started being persecuted. As far as I know they have no plans further than living in the woods and terrorizing any human with the misfortune of traveling through here."

"There have been others?" The prince's eyes were wide.

"Not that I know of, but you saw how Cayke is with a gun." Fiyero shuddered and nodded in fervent agreement.

"Is he…all there?" Elphaba shrugged and headed towards the castle.

"Kalidah's still upstairs," she said over her shoulder. "I'm sure she'd be happy to feed your horse if we ask her." Fiyero nodded and the green girl heard him following her.

/

Glinda wasn't sure what to make of the odd Bird standing in Elphaba's bedroom. The blonde was still wearing her rumpled traveling frock, so she didn't feel embarrassed about being seen in her bedclothes, but Kalidah was looking at her wings with nearly improper intensity.

"I read about you in the thrown out newspapers I've been snatching," the Stork explained. "To be honest I didn't really believe that a human could have wings." Kalidah tilted her head, thinking. "Then again, I didn't believe a human could be green either until I met the Witch."

"Why do you call her that? There are lots of witches in Oz. I'm a witch." Kalidah sighed, as though Glinda was missing something vitally important.

"You are a _sorceress_," she corrected. "In the wild Vinkus, where I grew up, witch doesn't just mean a user of magic. A witch is someone with power flowing in their veins like an unstoppable river; someone who burns with the will and heart and passion to bring about change." The Stork's eyes had started to grow hazy with awe. "A witch is someone strong enough to be a vessel of destiny."

"And you think Elphaba is a witch?" Glinda's voice shook a little. She was unnerved by the fervor in Kalidah's voice. "You've hardly known her more than a few weeks."

"It's like I told Cayke; sometimes you just know something without really knowing how you know it. You know?" Glinda didn't ask who Cayke was. She just nodded, half afraid that Kalidah might start speaking in tongues and scribbling on the walls at any moment.

Thankfully Elphaba appeared in the tower doorway just then, followed by Fiyero. Glinda bounced out of bed. "Dearest you're here!" she exclaimed, throwing herself at the Winkie. "I was afraid that snowstorm might've been the death of you."

/

Fiyero shot Elphaba a help-me look, which she studiously ignored. It wasn't right for him to need rescuing from his own girlfriend's hugs. The green girl hoped that the prince wouldn't become a distraction from her essential work.

Still, for all Elphaba's griping about how complicated Glinda and Fiyero were making things, she was desperately grateful to them. Grateful that they had risked life and limb to chase away her loneliness; grateful that they had cared enough to miss her in the first place. Grateful in ways she didn't fully understand yet.


	15. Storming the Castle

**Sorry that I missed a week…I blame a skiing trip and general avalanche of homework**

"So this is your room," Elphaba explained, showing Fiyero into a bedroom one level down from hers.

"This is my house; shouldn't I be in charge of room assignments?" the Winkie joked.

"Well this is the only bedchamber I got around to cleaning, apart from mine."

"Were you expecting company?"

"No," Elphaba growled, obvious irked. "I was going to use this room as a place to practice my spells. If you aren't careful I'll use it for its intended purpose while you sleep." The joviality drained from Fiyero's face as he remembered her rage-filed magic the day Doctor Dillamond was taken.

"Really?"

"No," the green woman chortled as her stony expression fell away. "You are so gullible."

"Well I am brainless," the prince retorted. He followed Elphaba into his room, trying to decide why exactly he had risked so much to find this odd girl.

"Do these accommodations fit your princely standards?" Elphaba teased, flashing him a wicked smile. Soft, morning sunlight dappled onto her skin through a window and Fiyero suddenly found himself distracted by the gentle glow she seemed to emit. "Well?" Elphaba challenged when he didn't answer.

"It's perfect," Fiyero exclaimed, jolting out of his distraction. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." As the green girl made to leave she fixed him with a strange look. "Glin and I will be in the kitchen if you want food." She smirked. "I trust you can find your way, since this is _your house_." And with that, she was gone.

When Fiyero eventually entered Kiamo Ko's massive kitchen, after getting lost several times, he walked in on what at first appeared to be an argument.

"She had them in _cages_?" Elphaba demanded, standing furious and rigid in front of Glinda. Her livid posture was at odds with the warm, friendly colors of the room, which was lined with golden copper tiles. It had obviously been cleaned recently and a cook-fire was roaring in one of the three hearths. The remains of a porridge breakfast lay on one counter.

"Yes, Elphie," Glinda squeaked. Her eyes were wide and horrified. "It was awful."

"And you did _nothing_?" Elphaba railed. The blonde flinched as if she'd been struck.

"Of course not! I came to find you." The green girl heaved a deep breath, as if to steady herself.

"I'm sorry for shouting at you, Glin," she apologized in a slightly gentler tone, "but I can't believe that anyone, even Morrible could do such…" She blew out an angry breath.

"Am I interrupting something?" Fiyero asked tentatively. The emerald witch whirled to face him, and he was floored by the passion blazing in her beautiful, chocolate eyes.

"Madame Morrible is keeping _caged_ Animals in the Emerald Palace," she snarled. "That fowl woman has been using Chistery as a _test subject_ for excruciatingly painful and dangerous spells." The Winkie noticed that Elphaba's fists were clenched tight enough to draw blood. "We're going to get them out."

"What?" Fiyero asked. "When?"

"Tonight"

"Elphie!" Glinda exclaimed. "We've got to think this through. The guards there have been instructed to shoot you down on sight."

"You think we should just leave those poor Animals huddled in cages?"

"No! Sweet Oz, Elphie, what kind of person do you think I am?" Elphaba made a frustrated sound and stormed past Fiyero, out of the kitchen. Glinda followed her and stopped in the doorway.

"You won't be able to rescue anyone if you're dead!" she shouted after her friend. The blonde turned to Fiyero. "She can be so stubborn sometimes," Glinda sighed as she wrapped two small, thin arms around the Winkie.

"I'm sure she'll come around," he soothed. "I'll talk to her if you'd like."

Glinda smiled adoringly up at him. "Thanks plenty dearest."

/

The moment Elphaba reached her room she felt awful for losing her temper. The green woman knew she should go downstairs and apologize but her pride, and the fervent need she felt to stop Morrible, kept her getting ready to leave.

"You know Glinda's just worried that you're going to hurt yourself."

Elphaba nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden voice. "Sweet Oz, Fiyero, you startled me!" she chastened.

"Sorry." Silence. "Elphaba I know you want to free those animals, but storming into the Emerald Palace without preparation is not the way to do it. Being brainlessly impulsive will only get you killed."

"You're one to lecture on brainlessness."

"_Elphaba_."

"I've devoted my life to a cause," the green woman insisted, raising her chin defiantly. "I don't care what happens to me."

"Well I do." Elphaba's heart sped up at the absolute sincerity in his usually jesting eyes.

"Why?" she asked softly, abruptly finding it hard to breathe. Fiyero's thoughtful expression disappeared into a teasing grin.

"If you weren't around who would keep Cayke from blowing my head off?" Elphaba scowled.

"You're incorrigible."

"I'm not the one who was about to storm the most heavily guarded building in Oz with no plan." Her scowl deepened into a glare.

"I am going to do something about Morrible."

"I wouldn't dare try to stop you," Fiyero agreed. "But first we've got to prepare."

"We?"

"Fifi and I are coming." Elphaba turned to see Glinda standing in the doorway. Her mind flooded with guilt.

"I'm so sorry, my sweet," she cried. "I shouldn't have spoken so harshly."

"It's alright," the blonde replied, bouncing forward to enclose her roommate in a quick, feathery hug. "I know you can't help yourself."

/

"Wake up my sweet."

"No."

"Come on, Glin. The sunrise is beautiful."

"My mother collects paintings of Vinkun sunrises. I know what they look like, and they aren't worth getting up this early." Glinda rolled over with a resolute 'harrumph'.

"Your loss," Elphaba responded. An hour later she roused the blonde from sleep more adamantly. "If you don't wake up I'll leave without you," she threatened eventually.

Glinda's groggy mind sharpened with worry. "You'd better not, Elphie."

"I will if you and Fiyero don't get a move on." The witch's eyes were hard and Glinda knew she wasn't joking.

"Go wake Fifi. I'll be ready in a minute." As Elphaba disappeared downstairs nervous butterflies filled Glinda's stomach. They'd spent nearly all of yesterday planning a raid on the Palace, but, despite hours of work, their strategy was still terribly unrefined. Unfortunately Elphaba refused to wait any longer to free the Animals.

Glinda couldn't help but wonder about what Kalidah had called Elphaba. _A vessel of destiny. _The blonde shuddered lightly. For some reason the Stork's senseless words struck an instinctual, deep rooted fear into her heart whenever she thought about them too hard.

/

"Fiyero?" Elphaba rapped impatiently on the Winkie's door. "It's time to get up you lazy oaf!" When there was no response she barged into his room, prepared to chew him out. "Now is not the time to be…"

Elphaba trailed off at the scene before her. Fiyero was sprawled among tangled ocher sheets with a pillow squashed against the side of his face. He was, and Elphaba was acutely aware of this, shirtless. With one ear pressed down on the mattress and another blocked by a pillow, there was no way the prince could've heard her.

Elphaba flushed at Fiyero's sate on undress as she examined his sleepy face. A queer feeling of protectiveness rose in her. He looked so vulnerable and unguarded; totally free from his shield of uncaring. Fiyero murmured something drowsily and Elphaba was powerless to stop the tender smile that spread across her face.

"Wake up," she all but whispered, loath to disturb him. A shaking green hand gently brushed his arm. "Come on, wake up."

"Elpha…" he slurred. "Fae…" For a moment Elphaba felt something warm and happy squirm inside her.

"Fiyero you've got to wake up. We need to leave soon." She shook his shoulder again and he came to with a jerk. Two dark, Vinkun eyes zeroed in on the witch.

"Why are you looking at me that way?" He sounded curious, not upset, but Elphaba felt her soft expression harden.

"What way?" she snapped defensively. "I'm just curious as to why you felt the need to expose yourself while sleeping."

"I didn't expect company," Fiyero replied, blinking bleariness from his eyes. He shifted, baring more of his tan, muscular torso. Elphaba tried in vain to suppress another blush.

"Breakfast's in the kitchen when you're ready."

"Please tell me we'll be having something other than porridge," he begged. The green girl pressed her lips into a thin line.

"Sorry. The only stuff in the storehouse that hadn't gone bad were the grains." Fiyero groaned and rolled over. Elphaba smirked before leaving.

**Again I'm sorry for disappearing…this chapter was a little longer than usual, and there was some Fiyerba so I hope that sort of made up for it**


	16. According To Plan

**Sorry for being late. I've already used my quotient of excuses so I won't bore you with them again**

**On a more exciting note I went to see Avenue Q with my family last night. It was ten times funnier than I thought it was going to be (which was quite funny). **

"You've got to be kidding me," Fiyero exclaimed, looking at Elphaba's enchanted broomstick. "There is no way I'm trusting that thing to keep me from falling to my death."

"It's perfectly safe," the green woman defended irately. They were standing on Kiamo Ko's expansive front steps preparing to leave. It would take them almost an entire day to reach the Emerald Palace, so they would arrive just before sunset.

Fiyero had a short sword from the castle armory strapped to his side and the weapon made him feel braver than usual. It did not, however, bolster his confidence enough that he would place his life in the hands (or, as it were, on the handle) of an archaic-looking cleaning mechanism.

"Don't be a baby," Glinda scolded as she glided overhead in lazy circles.

"Can't you give me wings?" the Winkie whined. He turned pleading eyes on Elphaba and saw that his words had upset her.

"You don't want wings," she said in a flat, strained voice. Glinda folded in her feathery appendages and landed gracefully beside Fiyero.

"The spell was…painful," she explained with a gentle look at Elphaba. Fiyero felt horribly guilty.

"Elphaba…"

"Just get on the damn broom," the witch snapped as she swung astride the shaft. Fiyero obeyed. "Ready?"

He nodded nervously. "Yeah."

The broom shot forward like a surging horse and his arms instinctively lunged forward to catch Elphaba around the waist. A soft cry of terror escaped his mouth. Elphaba cackled at his fright and Fiyero smiled. At least she wasn't too angry to laugh.

/

As much as Elphaba enjoyed the warm, tingly sensations elicited by Fiyero's panicked arms around her middle, she was slightly annoyed at his dislike of flying. The green girl couldn't understand it. She loved flying. The first time Elphaba took to the sky it felt as though a long dormant part of her heart had come alive. Flying completed a piece of her she hadn't even known was there. Elphaba was meant to be a creature of the air.

Fiyero was obviously not. The slightest glance down made him dizzy, he was utterly terrified of heights, and whenever they hit turbulence he got nauseous. Elphaba didn't see why he couldn't just deal with it. _Glinda _had gotten over her fear of heights. Admittedly that was because she no longer needed to worry about falling, but still.

"Can we stop again?" Fiyero begged. "I may pass out."

"We stopped an hour ago," Glinda pointed out as she flapped along beside the broomstick. It was getting darker and the clouds surrounding them were beginning to take on the pastel shades of sunset. Elphaba bit her lip in concern.

"We're running late," she said. "If we take another break we'll miss our chance." They were aiming for the fifteen minute window between sunset and when the Emerald City lights came on. It was the only time that the sky was dark enough for their airborne entrance to be unnoticeable.

Elphaba urged the broom faster. Fiyero groaned, but she resolutely ignored his discomfort. The trio sped onward for several dimming minutes before the sun dipped out of sight, leaving behind only a few shreds of soft illumination. That was when the Emerald City came into view.

"Our fifteen minutes starts now," Elphaba called to Glinda. "We're gonna have to be fast." Without another word she pointed the broom straight at their destination and sent it rocketing forward.

Air clawed at Elphaba's snapping, windblown hair as they reached the City. She couldn't tell how many precious minutes their approach had absorbed; hopefully not so many that there wouldn't be time to land.

Just as Elphaba's sharp eyes picked out an empty alleyway near the Palace, the perfect place to set down, bright lights flared to life all around. For a moment she froze, blinded. Before the green girl's vision could adjust she heard the frightened exclamations of what could only be startled citizens. _Not good. _

As soon as she could see again Elphaba was met with crowds of panicking civilians and a rooftop guard, dressed in the green and gold of the Emerald Palace, scrambling to aim his rifle. "Glinda, fly to your balcony," the witch shouted. "Find a way to make it safe for us to lands there."

"Elphie…"

"Go now!"

Elphaba waited, eyes never leaving the guard, until she heard Glinda's wing beats grow fainter. "I wouldn't shoot that thing," she warned. "I've hexed your gun. Pull the trigger and they'll be scraping bits of you off the rooftop."

The young soldier spared his weapon a quick, worried glance before glowering up at Elphaba. "You're lying." She shrugged, trying not to look as scared as she felt.

"Shoot at me and you'll find out." Then the green girl forced herself to turn away and fly towards the Palace, hoping the guard wouldn't call her bluff. Elphaba's hands, slick with sweat, shook against the broom handle.

/

Fiyero's entire body pulsed with his frantic heartbeat. The nausea evoked by Elphaba's crazy flying had given way to terror. His back was exposed to a guard who wanted nothing more than to shoot them out of the sky. Elphaba's confident, wicked-witch impression had seemed convincing, but even so Fiyero could feel her trembling against his back. Almost subconsciously the Winkie's arms tightened.

The Emerald Palace loomed in front of them, and, still, no bullet had come whizzing out of the night. That was a good sign, right? Fiyero was beginning to believe that their haphazard plan might actually work.

Then he heard the unmistakable crack of a gunshot. Something whistled past him, raising the hairs on the back of his neck, and Elphaba stiffened. A stunted gasp of pain hissed from her lips.

**I would recommend that all my readers check out 'Stand and Fight' by Maybe-I-Should-Write-Something. It's an AMAZING story, but, for reasons unknown, hasn't yet found an audience. **


	17. Horrible Morrible

Glinda was surprised to find that there were no guards on her balcony. Apparently Madame Morrible hadn't expected them to enter the Palace through such an obvious location. Or maybe she didn't expect a break-in at all. That would be a stroke of good luck.

Glinda's room looked exactly as she'd left it. Her new gowns were still folded between sheets of tissue paper in a fine quoxwood dresser. The blonde guiltily tucked a few silky squares into the deep pockets of her traveling cloak; she'd been borrowing Elphaba's dresses since arriving at Kiamo Ko.

It didn't occur to Glinda, even when she heard a gunshot shout through the air outside her balcony, that her friends might've been hurt. In the blonde's mind Elphaba was a constant of life; a powerful, unmovable force of nature. Elphaba's insides might be tangled up in a snarl of self-deprecating emotion, but she could no more be killed than the Emerald City could be blown over. Glinda was sure that, as long as Fiyero was with the green girl, neither of them was in any danger.

So, when Elphaba collapsed off her broom and onto the balcony several minutes later, it was quite a shock to the blonde.

"Elphie?" Glinda squeaked, turning towards the limp witch. Fiyero kneeled beside her with a look of panic.

"Elphaba?" he asked. "Elphaba are you alright?"

With a pained grunt the green woman hauled herself upright. One viridian hand was pressed to her side. "I'm fine," she hissed. "It just grazed my skin."

"What did?" Glinda demanded. Her hands were knitted together in uncertain worry.

"A bullet," Fiyero replied without moving his eyes from Elphaba. "Are you sure you're alright, Fae?"

"Don't call me that," she snapped. "And of course I'm fine. It's just a flesh wound." For a moment the witch moved so Glinda could see her injury. A strip of Elphaba's dress had been shorn away, and beneath it was a long, narrow gouge. The bullet's path across her side had not left a deep wound, but it was still bloody and painful-looking.

"Sweet Oz, Elphie, that's a lot of blood. Maybe we should get out and go home."

Elphaba's eyes smoldered like a pair of red-hot coals. "I'm fine," she repeated adamantly, hobbling towards Glinda's old bed. The green woman stubbornly tore a swathe of fabric from one of the sheets and wrapped it several times around her middle. She grimaced at them. "See? Good as new."

"Elphaba, being hut it nothing to be ashamed of. It's ok to need help." The witch bristled at Fiyero's soft, reasonable tone.

"We are _not_ abandoning this mission just because I've got a little scratch."

"We won't abandon the mission," Glinda assured her. "Fiyero and I can do it ourselves. You just wait here."

"Glin…"

"Don't argue, Elphie. You're hurt. If you don't agree to stay here Fiyero will drag you onto the broom and we'll be on our way. Right dearest?"

Fiyero nodded solemnly. "I will, Fae."

Elphaba sighed in frustration. "Alright, I'll stay. As long as Fiyero stops calling me 'Fae'. Oz knows I don't need another ridiculous nickname." As if to demonstrate that she would behave, Elphaba flopped down onto the bed. "Just be careful, you two. That guard has probably spread the word that we're here."

"We will," Glinda assured her, heading for the door. "Fifi and I will be back before you know it."

/

Elphaba waited fifteen minute before she slipped out into the hallway with her broom. As long as Glinda and Fiyero were busy freeing the Animals, she might as well do _something_. Her wound burned, but only when it was twisted into certain positions. As she limped through the Palace's dim, empty hallways Elphaba soon learned to avoid those positions.

Eventually the green girl reached her destination; Madame Morrible's study. Elphaba wasn't delusional enough to try attacking the press secretary herself, but the witch did hope to liberate the Grimmerie. Madame Morrible's door was unlocked, so Elphaba slipped quietly inside. The somber room was faintly illuminated. Some oil lamps on the walls were lit, but turned down. Elphaba took a few tentative steps towards the center of the space.

_If I were Madame Morrible, where would I put the Grimmerie? _Her sharp eyes swept over the academic-looking bookshelves, and settled on an enormous chest shoved into one corner. She tottered towards it, still clutching her side. A huge, iron lock sealed the chest, but a quick spell from the witch remedied that. She grinned at the irony of it; the unlocking spell was one of the first she'd learned in Morrible's seminar. Elphaba knelt to open the chest.

Then hands closed around her neck from behind.

The green girl instinctively threw a bony elbow backwards and heard her attacker gasp in pain. Elphaba rolled to the side, wincing at the pain that screamed from her wound.

Madame Morrible was standing over the green girl with demonic fire in her eyes. She kicked Elphaba's broom away. "You won't be hitting me with _that_ old thing again," the cruel woman snarled. She lunged forward, claw-like hands ready to attack.

Elphaba thrust Madame Morrible away and struggled to her feet. She scrambled painfully towards the door, but Oz's press secretary slammed her into a bookcase. Black spots danced before Elphaba's eyes as her injury caught fire. She yelped in pain.

"You aren't going to escape this time,_ dearie_," Morrible hissed. In a hushed voice Elphaba murmured one of the simple, frivolous spells she's memorized during her free time at Shiz. The result was a slight, electric current running over the surface of her fingertips. She shoved one hand against Madame Morrible's face and, though the shock was only two or three times that of static electricity, it was enough to jolt the fish-faced woman away.

Elphaba took advantage of her opponent's confusion and pinned Morrible to the floor. Again the pain almost overcame her, but she still managed to subdue the struggling Madame. Elphaba pressed an arm down on Morrible's neck to keep her from calling for help.

Before the green girl could consider what to do next, the lights to the study were suddeny turned up.

"Madame Morrible you wanted to see m…" Elphaba's head whipped towards the voice to find a very startled Boq standing in the doorway.


	18. Escape

**This update comes at such an unusual time because next week I will be again driving to Mexico to build a house for a poor family in Juarez. So, needless to say, I will be a little too busy to type. **

"Master Boq, go for help," Madame Morrible wheezed. Elphaba pressed her arm harder against the press secretary's windpipe.

"Ignore her, Boq. Come help me."

The munchkin remained frozen, wary eyes flickering between the two women. Elphaba felt a flash of hurt at the fear in her friend's eyes. "Boq, it's just me," she cajoled. "We're friends. I'm not going to hurt you."

"You kidnapped Miss Glinda," he protested.

"That's a lie," Elphaba retorted, somewhat frustrated by his lack of loyalty. "Why would I kidnap my best friend? Glinda came to me."

"She's lying," Morrible coughed. A sharp, green knee pressed into the old woman's stomach.

"Glinda's here," Elphaba told Boq. "If you listen to Madame Morrible she will be captured and punished."

"Glinda's here?"

"Yes," the witch coaxed. "Help me and you can see her."

"Lies…"Morrible breathed, nearly silent. Elphaba added another ounce of pressure to her adversary's jugular and he former headmistress promptly passed out.

"Whoops," the green girl exclaimed, letting up. "I was going to tie her up, but that was much more effective."

"Is she dead?" Boq demanded, voice high. His question was greeted by a glare.

"She's just unconscious. Sweet Oz, Boq, do you think I'm a murderer now?" The munchkin's eyes narrowed.

"I don't know what to think."

"Well you'd better make up your mind," Elphaba huffed, moving to retrieve the Grimmerie from Morrible's now unlocked trunk. She held the ancient spellbook reverently and snatched her broom from the floor. "Why are you still living in the Emerald Palace anyway?"

Boq, looking somewhat disoriented by the witch's casual tone, shrugged. "They haven't made me leave yet. Actually I think that's why Madame Morrible called me to her study. She was probably going to kick me out."

"Well you obviously can't stay here now," Elphaba observed as she headed for the door. "You should go back to Shiz. Nessa's probably worried sick. She needs someone to look after her."

"Wasn't that _your_ job?" Boq challenged.

Elphaba spun around and fixed him with a scathing look. "Well I obviously can't look after her _now_." The green girl's gaze flooded with sadness. "In all likelihood she's glad to be rid of me. _You_, on the other hand, have probably been sorely missed."

With that Elphaba strode out the door on her way back to Glinda's room. The wound in her side still smarted like Kumbrica's spit, but her anger at Boq kept the edge off. She hoped the annoying munchkin wouldn't follow her. It was a vain hope.

"Miss Elphaba, I apologize," he whispered, small feet smacking against the stone floor. "That was uncalled for. Will you forgive me?"

"I'll forgive you if you go back to Shiz and look after my sister," Elphaba replied over her shoulder.

"But…" Boq paused. "I want to see Glinda."

The witch groaned quietly. "Of course you do."

"Please, Elphaba. I…I don't like Nessa the way she likes me."

"And whose fault is that?"

"I was only trying to be nice to her!" Boq squeaked.

"Shut up!" Elphaba hissed, slapping a hand over his mouth. "In case you've forgotten, I'm a fugitive. The guards will not be happy if they find us sneaking around."

"I'll be quiet if you let me come with you," the munchkin bargained quietly.

"This isn't some game," Elphaba sighed. "I've had to give up everything; my family, my education, my future. If you come with us you'll be a public enemy. Is a frivolous crush worth that?"

Something about the frantic look on Elphaba's face must've gotten to Boq, because he froze and took a step backwards. "Go back to Madame Morrible," the witch suggested sadly. "If you're there to help her when she wakes up, maybe she'll believe that you remained loyal. Go back to Shiz."

Elphaba didn't wait for the munchkin to leave. Instead she stalked away without another word. The door to Glinda's room was open when she reached it.

"I knew we shouldn't have left her alone!" Fiyero was shouting. "It was stupid; we should've known she was too stubborn to stay put."

"Hush, dearest," Glinda chastened. "Someone will hear us."

"I don't care! We've got to…"

"Fiyero, I'm right here," Elphaba interjected. Two worried faces swiveled towards hers.

"Thank Oz!"Fiyero exclaimed, throwing his arms around the green girl. She whimpered as the movement irritated her wound.

"Easy," she gasped. "Calm down, I'm fine."

"You scared us, Elphie," Glinda chirped indignantly.

"Sorry," Elphaba apologized, disentangling herself from Fiyero's iron grasp. With a triumphant grin she held out the Grimmerie. "I couldn't let you two have all the glory."

Glinda's mouth popped open a little, though she quickly closed it. "That may be impressive, _Elphie_, but you still lied to us."

"I said I was sorry," Elphaba insisted. Her eyes turned serious. "Were you successful?"

Glinda smiled grimly and led the green woman into her bedroom. Elphaba gasped at the small horde of emaciated Animals huddled there. With the exception of Chistery, all the unfortunate Animals were young; likely victims of caging experiments. Elphaba's face fell as the flicker of hope in her chest died painfully.

"No Doctor Dillamond," she observed mournfully. "And only the younger of the flying Monkeys."

"We'll find the others," Glinda promised. One small, delicate hand reached out to squeeze Elphaba's in comfort. Fiyero filled the doorway behind them.

"We'd better get a move on. We're lucky no one's found us yet."

Of course that jinxed it. Suddenly the sound of heavy boot steps thundered through the door of the suite. "It's time to go," Glinda told the young Animals sweetly. Elphaba was impressed that her flighty roommate managed to keep such a calm tone.

Fiyero and Glinda must've already organized the escapees into groups, because they quickly fell into clumps, each surrounding a Monkey. There were enough winged primates to carry the flightless Animals, so Glinda's hands were free to direct each cluster into the air from her balcony.

Elphaba and Fiyero swung astride the broom, the former more eagerly than the latter, and lifted into the night.

**Sorry that this chapter is on the short side. Sorry that there may be lots of typos (they will be fixed later; I had absolutely no time to edit this after I copied it out of my notebook). And also, sorry for the fact that it cuts off rather abruptly…the action will continue in the next chapter…I've had so much to do getting ready for this mission trip that my time for fan fiction is severely limited…sorry again**


	19. Realizations

**I was too tired after returning from Juarez to do much of anything, which is why this update is a day late…sorry!**

**If anyone wants to read about my mission trip (I would be very, very, very, VERY happy if you guys did!) you can find a fairly long entry about it on my blog...at the very top of my ff profile there's a link to it in blue that says 'homepage'**

Just as the last of their party were flapping away at battalion of guards managed to force in the door to Glinda's room. They swarmed out onto the balcony, rifles bristling.

Elphaba's breath caught. They were all sitting ducks, suspended in the open air as they were. Though Glinda was urging the Monkeys faster, there was no way they could get out of range fast enough to avoid a massacre. If the guards fired their weapons…

As she and Fiyero flew slowly away, carefully staying between the guards and their fleeing charges, Elphaba looked back at the balcony. "They're just babies," she whispered desperately. "These men won't shoot at unarmed babies. Despite all she'd witnessed Elphaba still believed, deep in her gut, that there was hope for humanity's decency. She didn't believe that anyone could aim at such weak, pitiful innocents.

The guards raised their weapons anyway. A handful stood back defiantly, but most prepared to fire with stony expressions.

Sometime froze in Elphaba's gut. They weren't out of range yet, and if the guards shot at least half of the rescued Animals would die. Slowly the icy lump in Elphaba's stomach melted into a boiling, writhing mass of anger. Her eyes hardened and even Fiyero's arms tight around her waist couldn't dampen the witch's rage.

The gunshots were nearly drowned out by the ringing in Elphaba's ears. Her blood stirred and crackled; building, building, building, until…The angry woman's eyes snapped shut. A strange humming sound filled the air. Fiyero sucked in a surprised breath.

"Sweet Oz," he murmured.

Elphaba cracked her eyes open. All around them bullets were floating, frozen, in the air, which was abruptly simmering with green energy. One deadly lump of steel hovered inches from Fiyero's head. With trembling fingers the green woman reached out and plucked it, still warm, out of the sky. Two baleful, brown eyes swiveled to glare accusingly at the now terrified guards. The boiling in Elphaba's gut peaked again and the bullets crumpled in on themselves.

By then the Animals were out of firing range. Elphaba's hands clenched into fists and her breath came in sharp, angry bursts. Fire was building in her side wound again, but she hardly noticed. "Easy, Fae," Fiyero soothed. The broomstick followed slowly after Glinda and the escapees, but Elphaba kept her smoldering eyes on the guards until they were out of sight. Then she leaned back against Fiyero and rested silently for the rest of their trip.

The flying Monkeys were young, and their wings weren't strong enough to fly for extended periods of time, so they had to land just within in the borders of the Vinkus. Relations between the Emerald City and the Arjiki were tenuous t best, so the Wizard probably wouldn't send troops over the border after them.

Elphaba wordlessly set about starting a fire. The group had landed in an open plain, surrounded by golden, waist-high grass, but the green girl managed to wrangle some kindling from a woody shrub. Once she'd gotten a sizable blaze going Elphaba sat back.

Fiyero was folding down sections of grass and weaving them together to create makeshift beds. His fingers moved with uncanny agility and the witch realized that her companion was in his element here. Just as she thrived in Shiz's library, he functioned best in the wilds of the Vinkus. Elphaba's sleepy mind was transfixed by the deft movements of Fiyero's strong, coppery hands. For a few long moments she just watched him.

He looked up and Elphaba glanced away, blushing. "Are you feeling alright?" he wondered softly, tiredly.

"Of course," she snapped. "Why wouldn't I be ok?"

"I was just worried about your side!" he defended, hands held up.

"Oh. Sorry." The viridian witch blushed again. Her eyes searched for a safe place to rest, and settled on Glinda, who was busy soothing the agitated Animals. A slightly surprised smile crawled onto Elphaba's face. She'd never really thought Glinda was capable of doing anything particularly helpful in the real world. Yet here the blonde had flung herself into comforting their young charges. Elphaba had never been good with children, and she felt a stir of pride at seeing her friend so excel at it.

Glinda led the Animals onto Fiyero's grass mats, where they drowsily curled in on themselves to sleep. "Only about half of them can speak," she reported, absentmindedly stroking the scruffy back of a Tiger cub. "Some are just too young, but others…" The blonde shook her head sadly and yawned. "What will we do with them now?"

"Find their parents if we can," Elphaba responded, leaning backwards. "Otherwise we'll have to take care of them ourselves."

"There are orphanages in some Arjiki tribes," Fiyero pointed out. "Many of them contain Animal members." Elphaba nodded, eyes drooping. She pulled off her cloak and bundled it into an impromptu pillow. As she settled down onto the ground Glinda rested her head on the witch's stomach. The pressure made Elphaba's wound ache a little, but not so much that she minded.

Before long Glinda's breathing grew heavy. Fiyero poked at the fire with a stick. "Do you want me t keep watch?" he asked Elphaba. She sighed contentedly.

"If you feel the need to. I don't think anyone will bother us tonight."

The prince glanced at Glinda's head, which rose and fell in time with Elphaba's breathing. "If _you'd_ like a pillow I'd be happy to volunteer my stomach."

The emerald woman chuckled. "I'm fine," she assured him, trying not to show how much his offer appealed to her.

/

Fiyero stayed awake long after Elphaba drifted into slumber. He watched the fire and the sleeping, furry forms beyond it. Despite his best efforts he was _thinking _again. When Elphaba had been shot, he'd been more terrified than he could ever remember being. And then, when she'd disappeared from the suite later, the Winkie had been prepared to tear the Emerald Palace apart to find her. Fiyero had never reacted that way about anything before, and it worried him.

Was it because he was afraid that, without Elphaba to goad him, he wouldn't be capable of intelligent thought?

Was it because she made him laugh?

Was it because her passion and power made him feel alive?

Or was it something else altogether?

Fiyero had been with a lot of women, and none of them, not even sweet, perfect Glinda, had made him feel even remotely like this. It was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time, having his happiness so anchored to another person.

Fiyero turned thoughtfully towards Elphaba's sleeping form. Her silky, raven hair had come loose from its braid and was drifting about her face like glossy, black curtains. In sleep her stubborn, defensive shell was cracked and she looked totally peaceful.

The prince couldn't halt a warm, if confused, smile from tugging at his features. "Oh Fae," he muttered. "Why do you get sadistic pleasure out of driving me mad?" As the wind pulled a lock of hair across the slumbering girl's forehead Fiyero caught the rogue curl and brushed it into place. Without warning the corner of Elphaba's mouth curled upwards in a lazy grin.

With husky firelight playing across her exotic skin, that happy expression stole Fiyero's breath. He was suddenly struck by the knowledge that Elphaba was actually quite beautiful. Not in the conventional way that Glinda was, but beautiful nonetheless. The blonde stirred in her sleep, mumbling in agitation, and guilt clawed at Fiyero's stomach.

She might not elicit the feelings Elphaba did, whatever those feelings were, but Glinda was pretty and good and had become a dear friend over the last few months. She didn't deserve to be led on, and Fiyero was no longer shallow enough to be content in such an empty relationship.

This had to end.


	20. Coming Home

Glinda was pulled from sleep by a strong, warm hand shaking her shoulder. The blonde's eyes opened drowsily and focused on a coppery, Vinkun face. Automatically a perky smile sprang onto her features.

"Good morning, dearest," Glinda murmured. She sat up slowly, careful not to wake her human pillow. It was well after sunrise, but last night must've tired Elphaba out because, the green girl was still asleep.

"We need to talk," Fiyero said softly. His jaw was set, as though against some approaching unpleasantness, and Glinda's stomach tightened. She' known this was coming. She's tried to ignore it, but she'd known.

"Alright."

They rose and walked a few paces into the tall, thick grass. "Are we still in a relationship?" Fiyero asked bluntly, taking a page from Elphaba's book. "You call me 'dearest', but…" He trailed off and Glinda nodded to show that she understood what the prince was trying to say.

"There's no space for a relationship in this life," she agreed. "Or, at least, not for a relationship like ours. We don't live in the perfect, safe, manicured halls of Shiz anymore." It was only as Glinda spoke the words that she realized their truth. She and Fiyero had a perfect, safe, manicured relationship, and in the absence of such things it had simply dissolved. There was nothing much holding them together anymore. Nothing but friendship.

Fiyero smiled weakly, as though in relief. "So, are we over then?"Glinda nodded, because she didn't trust her suddenly strained-feeling vocal chords. "But we're ok, right?" Fiyero fretted as he saw tears filling the blonde's eyes. "I mean, we'll always be friends."

"Yeah," Glinda croaked. "Friends." She sucked in a deep breath, pulling herself together for his sake. "I'm fine, Fifi. Just sad. But I know…this is for the best." She shot a glance at Elphaba, who was still sleeping beside the rescued Animals. "I'm glad we ended this before someone got hurt."

Fiyero moved awkwardly away, heading back to their campsite, and Glinda stood where she was, fighting irrational tears.

/

Elphaba awoke to the smell of cooking eggs. Even before the green girl's eyes were open her stomach growled. After weeks of eating nothing but oatmeal the basket of pheasant eggs Fiyero was preparing held all the appeal of a palace feast.

"I didn't know you could cook," Elphaba remarked. She yawned spectacularly.

"It's learn to cook or starve when you spend so much time in the wilderness," Fiyero replied, handing her an egg-laden leaf. There was a new levity in his voice and Elphaba couldn't help but respond to it. She smiled.

"Why so chipper?"

"I'm just glad that we're alive," Fiyero explained with just the slightest hint of guilt. Elphaba shrugged it off and dug into her breakfast. The witch was halfway through her ample meal when she thought to wonder where Glinda was.

Elphaba looked up and found her friend patiently urging the Animals to eat their breakfast. She stood to join the blonde just as a little Boa was finally eating some eggs. The young snake wrinkled her nose in distaste. "They're icky," she complained. "I want meat."

"We'll get you some meat soon," Glinda promised.

"Rat meat?" the Boa asked hopefully.

"Yes," Elphaba cut in, noticing her friend's discomfort at the thought of consuming a rodent. "We'll find you a fat, juicy rat when we get where we're going." Placated, the snake offered them a toothy smile and slithered away. Glinda turned towards her roommate and Elphaba immediately saw that something was amiss. "What's wrong?"

The blonde looked down. "Nothing."

"Glin…"

"Later," the blonde insisted. She stood slowly, sadly, and the emerald witch narrowed her eyes in concern. "Elphie, I'm fine," Glinda exclaimed, fluffing her wings out. "We can talk later. It's time to leave. Everyone's eaten."

Elphaba flushed in embarrassment. "Were you waiting for me?"

"After that magic last night I wasn't about to begrudge you a little extra sleep." Despite Glinda assurances Elphaba was eager to make up whatever time her sleeping late had cost them. Soon the three humans and their charges set off again into a crisp, Vinkun morning. They flew through the afternoon and arrived at Kiamo Ko just as the sun was beginning to sink.

Glinda set about finding space for the Animals, Elphaba went looking for food that suited the varied tastes of their guests, and Fiyero searched through the dusty library's maps for villages that might take in orphaned Animals. By the time every last Monkey, Tiger, Snake, Wolf, and Parrot was full and asleep the trio was absolutely exhausted.

"I will never be a parent," Elphaba announced as she fell into bed beside Glinda.

"Come on, Elphie, it wasn't that bad."

"You didn't have a Boa Constrictor cutting off the circulation to your arm," the green girl grumbled. She rolled over to face Glinda. "So what was bothering you earlier?"

"Fiyero and I broke up," the blonde explained quickly, painlessly. Elphaba drew in a shocked breath.

"What? Why?"

"We just don't really like each other that way anymore." The petite girl fought to keep her voice steady.

"Oh, Glin, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be," Glinda responded. "I know this if for the best. I'm just sad that it's over, you know?" Elphaba did not know, but she nodded anyway.

"So you're alright, my sweet?"

"I will be," Glinda replied. She grinned with a fair amount of effort. "Now I think you should stop worrying and let us get some sleep."

"Fine," Elphaba huffed, flopping over onto her other side. After a few minutes passed she felt a layer of warmth and downy feathers drape over her side as Glinda again wrapped them both in her wings. The witch smiled, grateful beyond words that she, her friends, and the Animals, were all safe and happy.

/

When Elphaba opened her eyes the next morning she found herself face to face with Fiyero Tiggular. His faintly smiling lips were so close to the green woman's that she could feel his heated breath wafting over her skin. The prince's eyes were soft, and dark, and warm as they peered deeply into Elphaba's, and she drew in a gentle gasp at the searing emotion in their depths.

The witch felt heat rise through her body. For a long moment she wanted nothing more than to move a hairsbreadth forward and press her lips against Fiyero's. Then Glinda stirred beside Elphaba and the Winkie moved back. "Good morning, sleepyhead," he greeted, mischievous voice breaking the spell. "I think it's time you get up."

Elphaba's eyes grudgingly relinquished their hold on Fiyero and moved to the window. "It's not even sunrise yet."

"The Animals will be up by sunrise, and if we don't get a move on there won't be any food in the castle for them to eat."

"What exactly do you propose we do then?" Elphaba demanded. Fiyero grinned and her heart stopped briefly.

"I propose we embark on an undercover foraging mission," he explained with all the enthusiasm of a little boy planning to sneak out after bedtime.

A raven eyebrow arched incredulously. "Big words for such a brainless prince."

Fiyero stood and shrugged. "Well, if you don't want to come…" Elphaba felt sudden panic grip her groggy mind and she threw her legs over the edge of the bed.

"No, I do!" she all but shouted. The Winkie's smile grew even wider.

"Get dressed then," he chortled. "I'll be waiting in the kitchen." The emerald woman glanced at her roommate, who was still deeply asleep.

"Should I wake Glinda?" Fiyero tensed for a moment, and some of the excitement drained from his face.

"If you want to," he sighed. "But she'll be grumpy if we drag her out of bed this early." For a moment Elphaba agonized over whether or not to leave her friend. Then she considered a morning alone with Fiyero and her decision was made.


	21. Newspaper

**I am really, truly sorry that it's been so long! Last week was Holy Week, which meant I had to go to church just about every night, which severely debilitated my time for homework and, consequently, my time for fan fiction. Then on Monday I had a track meet and…well yesterday I was just too lazy to update. Sorry again. Please forgive me. Hopefully the Fiyerba will make up for my absence**

The land outside Kiamo Ko was eerily quiet as Elphaba and Fiyero slipped outside. Only a few rays of dim light leaked over the horizon, so the uncountable stars were still visible. The cool, morning air felt soft as it blew over Elphaba's skin. She shivered against the silky wind; half excited, half nervous. As they left the castle Fiyero snatched the green woman's hand and led her towards the forest.

"Where are we going?" Elphaba whispered, not wanting to spoil the pristine silence.

"I'm not sure yet," Fiyero murmured back. "But I'll know when we get there." The witch rolled her eyes, but continued after him. Fiyero seemed to relax when the woods closed over them. He slowed their pace, breathing deeply. "I smell breakfast!" the Winkie announced.

Elphaba paused to sniff the air and detected a sweet, fruity scent. "What's that?"

"Vinkun blackberries," Fiyero replied with a grin. He veered into a clump of pine saplings and pulled Elphaba through after him. They emerged in a berry patch.

"Are they safe to eat?" Elphaba wondered. She bent down to examine the plump fruits, which were apparently unaffected by the recent snow and chilly weather. Fiyero flopped onto the ground and popped a blackberry into his mouth.

"They taste safe," he exclaimed. Elphaba shoved his shoulder and he laughed. "I'm just kidding! Wild Vinkun fruit is always safe. Unfortunately only the blackberries are still around this late in the year."

"Do they grow all winter?" the emerald woman wondered.

"Yeah. Te village elders say it's some sort of ancient magic."

"Hmm." Elphaba plucked a berry and bit into it tentatively. Sharp, succulent flavor flooded over her tongue. "They taste amazing."

"I know." Fiyero stood. "You pick some. I'll go see if there's any other food to be found out here. Elphaba, unable to speak because her mouth was full of berries, nodded. As her companion disappeared she eagerly began filling the pockets of her nightgown with fruit.

Unfortunately it wasn't long before the ravenous, Vinkun mosquitoes started nagging Elphaba. They were nasty things, but the green woman stubbornly continued gathering. Eventually a particularly large bug bit the back of her neck and she yelped.

"Sweet Oz!" Elphaba hissed, rubbing the painful bite. "Alright, you awful bugs, I'll leave you to your berries."

She gathered up a handful of the juicy fruits and retreated to the forested edge of the berry patch where there were fewer bugs. Elphaba leaned back against a thick-trunked quoxwood tree. "Damn bugs," she muttered sourly.

"They _are_ rather annoying," came a voice from above. Elphaba started and looked upwards. Kalidah blinked down at her from a tree branch.

"You scared the wits out of me!" the witch exclaimed in irritation.

"I doubt that," her Stork companion replied, fluttering to the forest floor. "You seem to have quite a surplus of wit, Witch Elphaba." Kalidah cocked her black-and-white feathered head. "Do the mosquitoes plague you?"

"They do indeed," the green girl confirmed.

"You're lucky there were only mosquitoes in this berry patch. Kumbric flies are even worse. They'll give you the sleeping dead virus. Getting over _that_ is a lousy time, let me tell you! Once I…"

"Is there a reason you're here?" Elphaba interrupted.

"Well you're awfully snappy today," the Stork observed. She tugged a crinkly, gray object from the pocket of her vest and dropped it at Elphaba's feet. It was a newspaper. "Stole this from town," Kalidah explained. "Seems I'm not the only one calling you 'witch' anymore."

The viridian woman snapped her offering open to examine it. The headline read: Elphaba Thropp Declared the Wicked Witch of the West. Elphaba's sharp eyes immediately dove into the short article.

_Elphaba Thropp, daughter of Munchkinland's governor, Frexspar Thropp, recently conducted a raid on the Emerald Palace. This attack was the latest in a string of transgressions against the Wizard, which included kidnapping Glinda the Good as well as mutilating a family of Monkeys and stealing an immensely powerful spellbook. Luckily Wicked Witch's recent attack on the Palace was thwarted by a battalion of guards. The Witch of the West might've been apprehended had a few men not refused to fire on her as she escaped. Said men are awaiting trial for charges of treason. _

_ Madame Morrible, his Ozness's press secretary, has assured the Ozian public that the Wizard is currently organizing a troop of elite guards called the Gale Force, who will be responsible for subduing this new threat to our nation's security. Though there is some Lurlinist speculation that the Wicked Witch is Kumbrica's reincarnation, Madame Morrible is adamant that Elphaba is, in fact, quite mortal despite her formidable powers. Anyone with information as to the location of the Wicked Witch of the West or her kidnapping victim, Glinda the Good, is encouraged to go the Wizard and report it. _

Elphaba's stomach churned with equal parts rage and fear. On the one hand she was furious that the Wizard would persecute men who were guilty of nothing but being moral enough to avoid firing on innocent children. On the other hand she was terrified of this so-called Gale Force. Before, Oz's ruler had been rather complacent about her three person revolution, but apparently this last raid had forced him to treat them as a real threat. Immediately the green girl's thoughts turned to Glinda and Fiyero, who were now in terrible danger because they'd allied themselves with her.

"Thank you for bringing me this," she said to Kalidah distractedly. Elphaba's hands clenched into nervous fists as she wondered how in Oz to deal with this new threat.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" the Stork wondered, obviously seeing the panic on her friend's face. "Cayke and I may be eccentric, but we aren't totally useless."

Elphaba was about to tell Kalidah that there wasn't much she could help with when an idea struck the witch. "Kalidah, do you know of any nearby villages that harbor Animals?"

"Well of course," the Bird squawked. "There are quite a few if memory serves me correctly. Why?"

"We rescued some Animal children, and they need a place to live until their parents can be located." Kalidah's eyes lit with understanding.

"So _that's_ why you broke into the Emerald Palace! The article made it sound as though you just wanted to piss his Ozness off by abducting a spellbook. A rescue mission sounds more like something you'd do." The Stork shook out her wings. "Well don't you worry; I'll have found a place for those Animals by tonight." Without allowing Elphaba to say another word Kalidah launched herself into the sky and disappeared.

"What did that crazy old Bird want?" Fiyero queried from a few feet away. Elphaba jumped and fixed him with a fiery glare.

"Why is everyone sneaking up on me today?" she demanded. The Winkie tried unsuccessfully to suppress a grin.

"I wasn't sneaking," he defended, holding up an armful of dirty, potato-like roots and forest greens. "And, while I was not-sneaking, I found breakfast." Despite the oppressive stress of what she'd just learned Elphaba couldn't help but smile.

"Thanks Yero." The green girl gestured to her bulging pockets. "I picked as many berries as I could before the mosquitoes got to me."

"Good work," Fiyero responded, stepping closer. "Our undercover foraging mission was a success."

"Not yet, it's not," Elphaba whispered as she allowed his playful mood to banish her dark thoughts. "We've still got to get back before Glinda wakes up."

"And how do you propose we do that, Fae?" The witch blushed at his use of her nickname and grinned mischievously.

"We race." Before Fiyero could even react Elphaba took off towards the castle at a dead sprint, cackling.


	22. Gale Force

Although Fiyero was more muscular Elphaba was lighter on her feet and had a head start. She took off towards Kiamo Ko like a bolting deer; graceful but with driving purpose. The Winkie followed behind with a playful smile hovering on his lips. If Elphaba was going to play the deer then he'd just have to catch her like the fierce, Vinkun hunter he was.

After a few minutes of delighted running the green girl noticed that Fiyero was no longer behind her. She skidded to a halt by the edge of the forest. The castle's slate-colored steps loomed ahead, but there was no sign of anything even resembling a Winkie prince. "Fiyero?" Two sharp, brown eyes scanned the surrounding trees. "Fiyero where are you?" Elphaba took a wary step towards Kiamo Ko. "I'm gonna win," she taunted, still searching for a hidden figure among the underbrush.

Just as the witch was about to claim her victory a large, Fiyero-shaped object dropped from above. Two Vinkun arms pinned a squealing Elphaba to the forest floor. "Gotcha!" Fiyero exclaimed triumphantly. The hunter-prince had leapt from the trees in such a way that he knocked Elphaba over but didn't land on her. Despite his conscientiousness Fiyero was faced with chocolate flames when he met his friend's gaze.

It took the Winkie a few long moments to realize that the intense look Elphaba had fixed him with wasn't one of anger. In fact Fiyero recognized her expression as one often utilized by the empty-headed girls of his past relationships. He'd never been much affected by _their_ fiery gazes, but when it was _Elphaba_ looking at the prince in such a way he felt his chest tighten. That unnamable feeling, the one Fiyero was trying not to think about, swamped his body. At such close proximity the viridian woman's eyes were absolutely hypnotic.

Neither he nor she moved as they lay on the forest floor; bodies pressed together and breath mingling. Without consciously giving himself permission to do so Fiyero moved forward a hairsbreadth. Elphaba's molten eyes flickered uncertainly to his lips. Her mind was awhirl with protests at what was clearly about to take place.

_Fiyero's a prince and you're just a green freak. _

_ He was your best friend's boyfriend up until yesterday. _

_ You'll only end up rejected and hurt. _

_ Glinda would be heartbroken at your betrayal. _

_ The Gale Force is after you. By tying yourself to Fiyero you'd be putting him in terrible danger. _

It was the last thought that made Elphaba stop. She inched her head sideways. The movement was tiny, but it was enough. Fiyero remembered himself and rolled off the witch. She scrambled away, panting. For the first time Elphaba noticed sticky juice seeping through her pockets.

"Now look what you've done," she scolded breathlessly. "The berries are all crushed."

"Sorry." Fiyero sounded distracted. "We can get more later." He glanced up at the castle, as though attempting to anchor his thoughts. "Let's get everything inside before Glinda wakes up."

/

"Elphie, are there any more berries?" Glinda shouted across the kitchen as she stroked the feathers of a ravenous, young Parrot. "Just be patient," she ordered the Bird with a gently admonishing look. He was too young to speak properly but, despite the time spent in cages, managed to get out a few words.

"Hungry!" the Parrot squawked. "Hun-_gry_!"

"I know you're hungry," Glinda crooned in a sing-song voice. "Elphie's bringing you more berries." As if on cue Elphaba appeared at her friend's side with a bowl of the swollen fruits.

"Hungry!" their feathered charge cawed in delight. Despite her frustration the blonde witch smiled as he dug into the berries.

"Is he the last one?" Elphaba asked. Though she sounded run down her eyes glittered with an excitement Glinda recognized but couldn't quite place.

"I think so," the petite witch replied. "I told the others to go outside and play. Fiyero's watching them."

"Good. We should join him. Kalidah brought me some news that I need to share with both of you."

They found the Winkie seated on one of the castle's great, stone steps watching the orphans through foggy, thoughtful eyes. "Fiyero?" Elphaba called as she sat down beside him.

"Huh?" He jolted out of whatever musings had been holding his attention. "What's going on?"

"Nothing. I just have some news." Fiyero's eyes narrowed.

"Good news or bad news?"

"Bad," Elphaba sighed. She looked down at their charges to avoid the concerned looks her friends were wearing. "Apparently the Wizard has decided to actually do something about us." Thoughtful silence briefly reigned.

"What exactly has he decided to do?" Glinda wondered softly. Elphaba fished the crumpled newspaper article from her pocket and handed it over. The blonde skimmed for a moment before looking up. "The _Gale Force_? He's sending soldiers after us?"

"What's the Gale Force?" Fiyero demanded.

"A troop of elite guards," Glinda read, eyeing the article again.

"I'll understand if you want to leave," Elphaba said quietly. "This just got a lot more serious."

"We're not leaving you, Elphie," Glinda replied adamantly. "Friends stick together."

"Are you su…?"

"Don't waste your breath," Fiyero interrupted. "For Oz's sakes we were shot at a few days ago. If Glinda and I weren't serious we'd have left by now."

"Alright then," Elphaba assented with a stiff nod. "We're gonna have to figure out what to do about this."

"What _can_ we do?" Glinda asked. Her sparkling, blue eyes were wide and frightened.

"Stay put," Fiyero shrugged. "Unless he gets permission from my parents the Wizard can't send soldiers into the Vinkus without starting a war."

"So that's it?" the blonde groaned. "We stay here and hope the Gale Force doesn't sneak in and kill us in our sleep?"

"That's all we can do," Elphaba admitted. Though the sun was rising into a cheerful, blue sky it felt as though a shadow had suddenly draped itself over Kiamo Ko. Glinda leaned against Elphaba's side, and, when Fiyero saw the emerald witch's stricken expression, he surprised himself by wanting to do the same. In fact the Winkie wanted to enclose Elphaba in his arms to protect her from any form of sadness or harm. It was a bizarre impulse. If any girl was capable of protecting herself from harm it was Elphaba. Still Fiyero reached out and took her hand.

For awhile the three of them just sat there enjoying the comforts of physical comfort and friendship in the face of fear. Then Kalidah reappeared.

"Well you three look about as chipper as dead fish," she observed in her usual tasteless manner. "What's got you so miserable?"

"Nothing Kalidah," Elphaba muttered.

"Don't sound so sad!" the Stork exclaimed. "I found a place for those escaped Animals of yours." Immediately the trio brightened. "Cayke's sister runs a shelter up near Kellswater. She was a little put-off to hear that her brother's living alone in the forest, but the old Cat said she'd be happy to take in a few orphans."

"Where does she live?" Fiyero questioned eagerly.

"How about a 'thank you'?" Kalidah huffed. "I flew like a sandstorm to get there and back so fast and all you care about is…"

"Thank you," Glinda cut in, armed with a brilliant smile and her infallible people skills. "Fiyero's just anxious. We greatly appreciate your effort." The Stork's irate expression softened.

"You're very welcome." Her eyes closed in concentration for a moment. "I can't describe exactly where Cayke's sister lives. It'd be easier if we could just fly there."

"Great," Elphaba exclaimed. "We'll get the Animals ready to leave." She turned to Fiyero. "Do you want to come?"

"Oh no!" he all but shouted. "I am _not_ getting back on that broom. You and Glinda go, I'll hold down the fort."

**Again I apologize for the wait. I had an AP test to get through. Those things are brutal. **


	23. Celebration

**So, so, so, so, so, so sorry for the wait…I have a one word excuse: finals…**

"Fiyero?" Elphaba tried to keep the worry in her voice low as she entered Kiamo Ko's massive foyer. Her trip with Glinda to drop off the Animals had gone so smoothly that it made the green girl suspicious. She'd spent the entire flight back fretting that something terrible had happened to Fiyero while they were gone. "Fiyero where are you?"

"In the kitchen!" the Winkie hollered. His bellow echoed through the castle's cavernous interior. Almost weak with relief, Elphaba jogged towards the source of his voice. The kitchen was packed with brightly burning lamps, which all but banished the evening darkness swooping in from outside. This illumination was further amplified by reflections glancing off the various bottles of liquor lining each and every countertop.

Elphaba took in all the alcohol with an incredulous expression. "Fiyero what's all this?" she demanded.

"I broke into the wine cellar," he replied, sauntering out of the pantry with an armful of jarred fruits. "We're going to have a party." Before Elphaba could protest his insane idea Glinda entered behind her green friend.

"What's all this?"

"Fiyero wants to throw a party," Elphaba explained. "Which is hardly a good idea in this situation. We don't want to be inebriated if the Gale Force happens to come knocking on our door." Again she glared accusingly at the bottles of wine.

"Even if the Gale Force left the morning Madame Morrible made her announcement, which I highly doubt, it will take them at least a week to reach Kiamo Ko. Probably longer. We're safe for tonight, and as long as we are there's no harm in having a little fun." Fiyero's argument was followed by a charming grin.

"Sounds good to me," Glinda exclaimed.

"Glin!"

"Come on Elphie, it's just a party," the blonde bargained. "Don't you want to take a break from all this stress and just have some fun?"

"Yeah, Fae. We'll gorge ourselves on sugary food, drink a little wine, and stay up late. It won't even be a real party." That piqued Elphaba's interest.

"What would you consider a real party?" At that comment the Winkie prince went a little red.

"Nothing you'd be interested to hear about," he muttered sheepishly. His embarrassment elicited a small cackle from the witch.

"Well, if this isn't a _real_ party, I suppose I can participate," she chuckled. "I do have a reputation to uphold. What would the Ozian public think if the Wicked Witch was spotted at a _real_ party?"

/

So, despite Elphaba's qualms, all three friends soon found themselves lounged in the girls' room eating syrupy fruit out of jars and drinking rich, scarlet wine. Fiyero told stories of his childhood in the Vinkus while Glinda got progressively gigglier. By the time the sun had quenched itself on the western horizon her eyelids were beginning to droop.

"You'd better take a break from the wine, my sweet," Elphaba warned.

"I've only had two glasses!" Glinda protested, slurring slightly. "Besides, you've been drinking the same amount."

"I would guess that your tolerance for alcohol is significantly less than ours, what with your petite stature." From her place on the bed the blonde narrowed two bleary eyes at Fiyero's estimate.

"I'm no drunker than you are, Master Tiggular," Glinda chirped, reclining against the headboard. "Now please fill my glass again, Elphie dear."

"Fine," the green girl consented. "But don't blame me when you fall asleep." The blonde grumbled something incoherent and curled her wings tighter around herself. "So are you going to tell us about more of your adventures, Yero?" Elphaba queried expectantly. She could feel a slight buzz in the back of her head, but it was nothing compared to what Glinda must be experiencing.

"I'm afraid I'm all out of stories," Fiyero admitted, leaning backwards in the witch's desk chair. "I do believe it's time for you to entertain us, Fae." Elphaba felt a pleasant rush at hearing her nickname and had a strange urge to giggle.

"Aww, he's got a pet name for you!" Glinda squealed, clapping her hands in childish glee. "Isn't that adorable?" Elphaba blushed profusely.

"My childhood wasn't exciting enough to produce any stories worth telling," she muttered into her wineglass.

"Then you'll just have to give us a magic show," the Winkie suggested. He tossed the Grimmerie into Elphaba's lap. For a long moment the witch warred between an irrational desire to impress Fiyero and her usually infallible logic.

"It's too risky," she sighed eventually. "The Grimmerie only allows the caster to determine an end, not the means in which the end is reached. There's no way to know exactly how the Grimmerie's magic will bring about the requested effect. It's much too dangerous to use, except in emergencies."

"You're no fun," Fiyero huffed teasingly. "Glinda and I want a magic display. Don't we Glin?" The prince turned to find his blonde companion collapsed into a sleeping heap of skin and feathers. Elphaba smiled exasperatedly at the sight.

"I warned her," she pointed out. Then the viridian woman turned to Fiyero. "And I'm _not _doing a magic show. Do you want to end up with horns or something?"

"You don't think I'd look good in horns?" he scoffed in mock offense. Elphaba groaned and took another long sip of her wine. That turned out to be a bad idea though, because the witch abruptly felt a little dizzy. She stumbled towards halfway open window for a breath of fresh air.

As Elphaba sagged against the window frame Fiyero squatted beside her. "I'm sorry for teasing you," he appologized.

"It's okay," the witch replied. "You didn't really upset me. I'm just a little tipsy is all." For some reason the Vinkun prince seemed to find this extremely entertaining.

"Do you want to hear another story?"

"I thought you said you were out of childhood stories."

"It doesn't have to be from my childhood. I can be creative." Elphaba pondered that for a moment.

"Actually, I want to hear about those blackberry bushes. You said that they bloom all year and that the village elders called it magic." Fiyero grinned and suddenly Elphaba's heart beat through her entire body.

"According to ancient Vinkun lore there was once a beautiful, emerald fairy that watched over the wild forests of the Vinkus," he began in a low, storytelling tone. "When Gillikinese men tried to cut the trees down or slaughter the animals this fairy would use her formidable magic to drive them out. The people of the Vinkus called her Fae."

Elphaba's breath caught in her throat. She was entranced by the shine in Fiyero's deep eyes. "Once winter a horrible blizzard came upon the forests. The tribes living there began to starve, for the cold had frozen all the plants and driven the animals into their burrows. So Fae found a grove of blackberry bushes that hadn't completely succumbed to the snow, and cast a spell so they might swell with fruit even in the heart of winter."

Even when Fiyero trailed off, neither of them spoke. Elphaba felt as though the Winkie's eyes held her own captive; she couldn't look away from him. "Is that why you call me 'Fae'," the green girl whispered breathlessly. A queer sort of smile crept onto Fiyero's face.

"Partially," he admitted. "Also, it's often used as a term of endearment among the Arjiki." Elphaba's heart caught fire within her chest. She leaned in closer.

"Were _you_ using it as…a term of endearment?"

"What do you think?" By now the prince's smirk had blossomed into a full blown grin. Elphaba found herself trembling at their closeness. Her gaze was inexplicably drawn to Fiyero's lips. The witch moved another hairsbreadth forward, but found herself unable to progress any further. Fear and uncertainty held Elphaba captive.

Fiyero seemed to understand this because Elphaba suddenly felt his lips pressing against hers. For a moment the kiss was gentle; sweet and chaste. Then something fiery sprang to life in Elphaba's gut. She crushed her lips against the prince's, desperate for him. Two strong, Vinkun hands tangled in the green woman's hair as they pressed themselves together.

Elphaba felt the hungry creature within her wriggle in pleasure. She opened her mouth against Fiyero's and deepened the kiss. A soft groan crawled from the back of her throat. Bliss thrilled through the witch's limbs.

Eventually the couple broke apart for air. Elphaba gasped and slumped against the wall. Fiyero, who had more experience with such things, just sat back to watch her. He smiled at Elphaba's flushed cheeks and tousled hair. "You are so beautiful," the Winkie whispered.

A shy grin crept across Elphaba's expression. Her eyes flickered guiltily to Glinda, and, upon seeing that she was still dead to the world, returned to Fiyero. The emerald woman grinned mischievously, moving her lips back towards Fiyero's.


	24. Hangover

When Elphaba awoke, groggy and nursing a slight hangover, her first thought was that she felt very warm. Not physically warm, although she felt that too due to an unidentified mass of body heat pressed against her back, but emotionally warm. It was the sort of warmth, the sort of contentment and happiness, that Elphaba couldn't remember feeling since her mother died.

"Yero?" the green girl murmured before her brain could even process why exactly she felt so wonderful.

"Hmmm?" The warm form lying beside Elphaba shifted. "Fae?" A smile crawled involuntarily across the witch's face as she turned over to face Fiyero. They'd fallen asleep on the floor last night and slept only inches apart.

"Good morning, Yero," Elphaba whispered. As the Winkie blinked blearily she leaned in to kiss him.

"Mmm. Good morning, indeed," he responded when they broke apart. "I was afraid that was all a dream."

"If it was, it was a very good dream," Elphaba giggled. It was hard to care about the pounding headache gathering in her temples with such a perfect man lying beside her. "Though I could've done without all the alcohol."

"The booze was the best part," Fiyero argued teasingly. "You would've never kissed me sober."

"I'm sober now," Elphaba pointed out, voice lowering. She leaned in again and they shared a proper kiss. The green woman was just beginning to lose herself in the feel of Fiyero's lips when her companion produced a very feminine sounding moan. Elphaba pulled away, confused. "Yero was that you?" she demanded.

"No," he replied, frowning. "I thought it was you."

"Elphie?" Glinda's voice was scratchy with sleep. "Elphie, my head hurts." The blonde's voice oozed abject misery as she produced another moan. Elphaba was up almost immediately, ready to help her friend.

"That's a hangover, my sweet," she explained softly.

"I've been drunk before, Elphie," Glinda groaned. "This isn't just a hangover. It feels like my head's been split open." Elphaba's lips pulled thin. She turned to Fiyero with resigned eyes.

"Today's going to be awful for her," the witch sighed. "Could you bring some water and a bucket up here? I'm going to stay with Glinda until she feels better." The sorrowful look in Elphaba's eyes implied that she'd much rather be doing something else. Fiyero gave the viridian woman a quick peck before leaving to do her bidding. The prince didn't mind waiting. He would wait forever if it meant he could kiss Elphaba again.

/

As it turned out, Fiyero had to wait an entire day before Elphaba felt it was alright to leave Glinda's side. The green girl slipped into his bedroom around midnight with news of her friend's condition. "Yero?"

Fiyero yelped and jerked out of bed. "Fae? Sweet Oz, you startled me!"

"Sorry," Elphaba replied softly. She was seated at the far edge of his mattress. "I wanted to tell you that Glin's finally feeling better." The disoriented Winkie rubbed his eyes and glanced at a time-piece on the bedside table.

"You do realize it's past midnight, right?"

"Yeah." Elphaba shrugged. "I'm not really tired." She bit her lip nervously. "Are you upset that I woke you up?"

A mischievous grin crept over Fiyero's features. "Of course not. I'm never upset to wake up with an attractive woman in my bed." The witch scowled.

"I'm not_ in_ your bed."

"Not yet."

Elphaba smirked, scooting closer to the Vinkun prince. "And here I thought you were a gentleman."

"Not at midnight." Fiyero pulled the emerald woman against his bare chest.

"I see that you haven't stopped exposing yourself while you sleep," Elphaba observed critically. Rather than reply to the snarky comment Fiyero captured her lips with his. Warmth seeped through the green girl's chest and she all but melted into the kiss. "Yero, we need to talk," Elphaba whispered when they parted several minutes later. "We've got to decide what to do now."

"Isn't Glinda going to participate in this discussion?"

"Glinda spent the past day wincing at every creak of the floorboards and expunging the entire contents of her stomach. If you want to wake her up now that she's finally getting some rest, be my guest."

"Alright. Point taken. What did you want to discuss?" Elphaba let her head rest against Fiyero's chest. It was strange for her to be so physically close to someone, but it also felt undeniably right.

"The Wizard created the Gale Force to send us a message," she explained softly. "He wants to scare us. We've got to show him that we aren't scared."

"You want to plan another raid?" the Winkie demanded. His voice was spiked with fear.

"Not a raid," Elphaba replied. Even in the dark Fiyero could see her eyes gleam dangerously. "A revolution."

It was a still, quiet night in the Emerald City. Evening had just draped its dark curtain over the sky and people were finishing their business in preparation to head home. Although the entire metropolis was on edge due to news of the Wicked Witch, no one expected what was about to happen. It started with a slight crackle, and a fizzing burst of greenish color above the Emerald Palace. A few keen-eared citizens glanced up, but most people dismissed it as a faltering streetlamp.

Then, suddenly, the tallest tower of the Palace exploded. Rockets whirred into the sky and burst into vivid, green fireworks. Everyone was held in awe; the display was visible from every part of the Emerald City. As the night came alive with fire the magicked pyrotechnics formed words. Before long a gleaming message was written across the stars, like live embers dropped on a sheet of velvet.

_Kumbrica's Revolution Has Begun. _


End file.
